Keeping up with the Kuchikis
by DT.Cecil
Summary: Byakuya struggled for patience because he was going to kill something. What happens when the 28th head of the Kuchiki Clan is summoned to an unexpected meeting with his sister and the Elders of his clan? Warning: Lemons coming up in future chapters. My first fanfic . Reviews motivate me to unleash my imagination :) Byakuya,Rukia, Hisana Renji, Ichigo.
1. Chapter 1

**Ahem: Disclaimer- I own nothing but this fanfiction.**

 **This chapter had been re-uploaded to correct all the grammatical errors found in the original post. I owe it to my readers, who had taken the time to read, review and like my word-smith work of fiction, to provide the best reading experience imaginable. And to who I want to say a very big;**

 **"Thank You, Thank You, THANK YOU!"**

 **Now, here's chapter one. Please, Enjoy!**

* * *

For the few times, Rukia found herself in the middle of a meeting with the Elders of the Kuchiki Clan it had never bowed well for her. At the very least, it was uncomfortable. Today as she sat beside her brother with her hands on her knees, fingers nervously clutching the fabric of her uniform, she wondered why- for the hundredth time-she was summoned. She had been pondering this ever since a servant knocked on her door this morning telling her that her presence is requested at the assembly hall on the East Leg of the manor.

Since her adoption into the family some fifty years before, the Elders had made it no secret that she wasn't welcomed. If not for the will of her brother-wait that wasn't completely right. Though Byakuya had adopted her into the family and she was no longer in the slums of Hanging Dog, he had made it seem like a chore when he adopted Rukia. Like B-Team.

Their relationship was completely awkward. He ignored her like the pet he didn't want to own. Feeding her and providing all the necessities but that's all she got.

At first, Rukia had thought it was something that she had done with her street savvy persona. So she tried to learn the ways of how to conduct herself in the manner of a noble lady- a Kuchiki lady. But she knew that they knew that she was only kidding herself. Their whispers were loud enough.

The meeting had begun with the normal proceedings as the Elders filed in. Every Elder had that 'I am looking down my nose look' superiority about them. Some things never change.

As soon as everyone was seated, Byakuya's steady baritone asked.

"Why are we having this meeting?"

It surprised Rukia that even he, the Head of the Kuchiki Clan, didn't know why he was here either. So, she wasn't the only one the Elders liked to be rude to.

Byakuya's gaze was cool and stormy at the same time. She wondered for a brief moment, how someone can be so gorgeous yet so monstrous? So empty.

"This meeting, Byakuya-Sama, is called to discuss the long-awaited topic of an heir to the Kuchiki Clan." One of the Elders said.

* * *

Byakuya wasn't surprised when they called a meeting neither was he surprised about the topic of ' _that_ ' being the Elders' main reason for calling it but why would they bring Rukia here?

In the past when they wanted to pester him about his obligatory responsibility to bed and breed someone to produce an heir, he was the only one that they'd invite to meetings like these. Sometimes, they'll start off with insignificant things beating around the bush with the topic as if they are the ones being inconvenienced or uncomfortable with the notation. Then when he'd had enough of their foolishness and sternly express his displeasure at them wasting his time, they would get to the point. Now they had Rukia...here?

His thoughts trailed off and dread settled in the pit of his stomach.

 _No, they wouldn't dare force her into that position._

Byakuya slanted a glance at the small childlike figure seated beside him. She looked nervous, evident from the strangling of her uniform folds in her grip but she hides it well otherwise. He could understand why. The Elders, on top of being intimidating, **hated** her.

He closed his eyes. There has been a lot of things he had done wrong by her and they were only now-slowly-picking up the pieces trying to make them fit into places that never existed in their relationship to begin with.

The problem with Byakuya Kuchiki was that he couldn't do anything half-assed. Whatever he did it was always done to the maximum and that, unfortunately, went for his emotions as well.

After Hisana died, he was broken.

Alone, again, in a world of rules and responsibilities where he's required to hide his feelings, to null anything that could bring shame to his family's name.

Fate is a cruel bitch indeed and after so long Byakuya Kuchiki was an adept student; learning too well her lessons that it might be too much to ask for happiness. To feel the sun, to really feel warmth in his cold world.

First, it was his parents. Both of them dying without seeing their son grow up. Him, loving and respecting them as any good son should.

Then he met Hisana and knew love with a woman.

His heart freely given. He never wanted to let go.

Being with her felt like he had been holding his breath all the other times without knowing that he was and with Hisana, he could breathe again after waiting so long. So he did what any drowning man would, he held on with all his strength.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Thanks for reading my first fanfic. Hope you were entertained as much as I enjoyed writing it. Remember to review so that new chapters can be uploaded soon :D.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings. Huge fan though :D**

 **Enjoy this next chapter and remember to leave your reviews to help me be a better writer and to keep you entertained. Thanks in advance.**

* * *

 _A baby?_

The word of questionable repute had Rukia turning it over and over again in her head as panic assailed her. Sure, kids were little cute monsters that made you do stupid things to make them feel happy and somehow convince you that you're happy to be an idiot but what did that have to do with her?

Unbidden, a thought came to her mind but as quickly as it arose Rukia swatted it back down. She was the adopted one. **Adopted**. **One**. There was no way that they expected her to have an heir for the Clan...right?

She had a career to focus on and she had worked damn hard at it too. Lots and lots of hollow slaying involved and all that. Training and paperwork was a pain in the ass. Literally! But she pushes through it because her dream of being a respected Shinigami is paramount.

Baby-maker? Not so much.

 _No one said anything about you Rukia_. She thought, trying to calm herself. _Just relax._

Her eyes darted from one wrinkled face to the next hoping that she wasn't wearing her feelings on her face. They were so poised, so serene she couldn't tell what they were thinking and she didn't want to be the only one being open-book here.

"As Elders of this Clan," Someone finally said.

 _It's that snake-faced one._ Rukia thought but for some reason, she couldn't recall his name and hoped they wouldn't address her.

"It is imperative that self-preservation is maintained." Snaked-face paused looking from her to Byakuya. "So we've called this meeting to asked that both Byakuya-Sama and Rukia-Sama join as one in order to achieve this goal."

Rukia forgot how to breathe.

* * *

Byakuya struggles for patience because he was going to kill something. His slender fingers which were on his thighs flexed for an absent Senbonzakura's hilt which laid by his feet. What in all the Seireitei convinced these fools that this was a good idea to propose to him?

He heard a strangled cry coming from Rukia and he couldn't begin to imagine the embarrassment of having to listen to the stupidest utterance he has ever heard. A not so subtle 'you're therefore ordered to breed with your brother'.

Though Hisana had been dead for some time, that didn't mean that he was about to just pass the mantle to Rukia. How could they even ask this of him? She is his sister for goodness sake's and to be with her like...that.

Fury like nothing he'd ever felt before snuffed out any struggle for the patience he was striving for.

Not certain when it happened but he was on his feet fixing all before him with an icy glare before saying with all the calm he did not feel;

"This charade of a meeting is over and as the Head of the Kuchiki Clan, I reject this proposal by the Council of Elders."

He turned to Rukia and in his signature tone that brokered no argument, he commanded, "Go Rukia, it's not good to be late for your duties."

He could see that her face was red down to her neck disappearing under the lining of her uniform and he wondered if she will have enough blood to not pass out.

"T-Thank you, n-Nii-Sama." She stuttered.

With a quick but respectful bow of her head to him and then the Elders in the room, the girl all but flash stepped away from the hall but he was sure she did after disappearing out of sight.

Alone with more than a dozen pairs of angry eyes looking at him, Byakuya turned to them once more, his own ire fiery hot.

"Do not **ever** do something like this again." He warned coldly.

The Elder that spoke last also stood. His height the same as Byakuya's with broad shoulders and an even colder expression than what Byakuya usually wore, only it was set in a face with dark green eyes and so many wrinkles that he reminded Byakuya of the bark of an ancient tree.

 _Kaito_.

He is one of the first Elders of the council and one of the most formidable.

Yes, he was going to draw his sword any moment now.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Bankai! Bankai! Bankai! :D**

 **Stay tuned for the next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings.**

 **Enjoy Guys! Comment, review and show me some love :)**

* * *

 _Nothing like killing hollows to release some stress._ Rukia thought as she slashes and hacks at their hard skins; breaking masks and teeth.

 ** _"Both Byakuya-sama and Rukia-sama to join as one in order to achieve this goal."_**

Rukia groaned loudly in frustration at the memory.

"What the hell is wrong with those old farts?" She said to herself running at another hollow.

Rule number one in the Kuchiki Clan. 'Never cause shame to the Clan's name'.

So even if she wanted to, there was no way that she could talk to someone about this morning's bizarre meeting. The only person she could talk to about it would be her brother but that's all the more a dead end since the relationship between them had always been a bit on the square side. Not only would it be a mistake but she had never been close to him to discuss even simple topics. He is the cold-hearted aristocratic king and she's the street rat in a borrowed princess dress of nobility.

The only thing that they had in common was that they were both soul reapers and even in that there is a gap between heaven and earth in their skills.

Another group of hollows came at her, their bellowing cries painfully to her ears.

"Mai!" Rukia cried releasing her Shikai. Her intent as cold as the ice that her Zanpakutō produces.

 _Those bastards!_

The pain of her shame only increased with every hour that passed since the meeting with the Elders. When she first became a member of the Kuchiki clan, she wasn't in the least welcomed. All she received were dirty looks and ridiculed behind her back in none too subtle whispers.

 _And now they had the gall to_...

The thought was too much for her to think about. She hated to think how they were laughing behind her back.

 _Wait, that's it! The only reason for them to invite me to their stupid meeting. To make a mockery of me._

Anger mixed with shame boiled in her with a vengeance. Kami help those hollows.

The Elders knew that Byakuya is still in love with Rukia's sister, Hisana and she had seen Hisana's picture before. To Rukia, Hisana looked so ethereal, beautiful and gentle compared to her short-rough-tomboy like persona and fiery disposition. Sure, they look alike as far as sibling likeness went but she was not her sister. She was at best, cute or a midget according to 'red pineapple head and carrot top' but she wasn't the beauty her older sister was. She's seen the way her brother looked at her picture. One night when he thought no one was watching. He looked lost, pained. Even after all these years since her death.

No one has ever looked at her like that.

"I don't care!" Rukia screamed in fury, a mighty thrust followed.

At some point, the member of her group stop fighting and just stared at her in awe, a little fearful and also because she killed all their prey. Her captain stood among them as well watching her slay hollow after hollow. Head-shot! Neck slash!

Blessed with a keen mind, Ukitake could tell that something was wrong but he couldn't discount the skill that he was witnessing either. He would have to talk with Rukia after she completed her killing spree but for now, he was watching an unseated officer fight at the level of a lieutenant.

"You're just like **Him** , Rukia."

* * *

I thought I would find you here," Ginrei said as he shut the door to Byakuya's office at the Squad Six Barracks.

"Grandfather!" Byakuya looked up from his paperwork pleasantly surprise about the visit. A rare smile on his lips. Only Byakuya's grandfather could elicit so much emotion from him now. Ginrei was the closest family member that really knew him.

Ginrei held up a palm and just as quickly as it came, his smile faded. Byakuya knew what that meant and also he was about to experience another bad interval to his day.

After departing from his home after that awful meeting where he nearly released his Shikai on Kaito and the rest of the Elders of the Clan, he had to deal with the idiocy that is his lieutenant and then came the paperwork. If that wasn't enough for him, he had training and recruiting to handle because Renji Abrai was nowhere to be found since his lunch break three hours ago!

 _Today must be an exercise of my patience._

And damn if he wasn't dangerously close to unleashing his Bankai when the thin line of that patience snaps like a twig.

Now, his grandfather was standing before him with one of his 'we-need-to-talk' expressions and Byakuya could guess why. Kami only knew what that sly face old prune told him because so help Byakuya Kuchiki, Ginrei looked like came to be the straw that breaks the camel's back of his fragile calm.

Letting out an inaudible sigh when he wanted to bellow in rage did little to quell the turmoil within him but it would have to do for now.

"I've just had a talk with Kaito and some members of the Council of Elders," Ginrei said, his face and tone divulged nothing about what he was thinking. If Byakuya is the prince of masking his feelings, Ginrei is the emperor.

He decided that he wasn't about to listen to what Kaito had to say but before he could say anything his grandfather threw him a curve-ball he couldn't possibly saw coming when he announced.

"It was I, who suggested that you and Rukia get married so that the main branch family of the Kuchiki clan will remain in power."

Byakuya's witty retort to that?

"What?"

He was sure that he look as dumbfounded as he sounded.

"I know that this comes as a surprise since I was against her adoption," Ginrei continued walking towards the window of the his old office with both hands tied behind his back, "and against you marrying her sister but you did what you wanted to, ignoring the Council's advice and my own. Against all the odds she is now apart of this family and she has responsibilities."

Byakuya couldn't believe his ears. Again.

"What?"

Just in case his grandfather didn't hear his previous genius. When had his life become a game of "Annoy Byakuya until he went Bankai"?

This **_was_ ** the last straw and if it were anyone else he would have let his sword sink into the ground by now. Instead, Byakuya said through gritted teeth.

"Grandfather, with all due respect, I am not interested in this decision to alter my mine and Rukia's life."

Always the Kuchiki. Never lose control. Never act below your station.

Ginrei said nothing. Only kept his eyes on Byakuya's face, a fixed grey gaze on him. The calm before the storm, perhaps?

"Though I understand what you and the Council wants is for the purpose of self-preservation in the Kuchiki bloodline, I cannot understand why you can't allow me to decide when that time is right and to choose someone for myself."

"And do you have a time set, Byakuya? More importantly, who will you choose?" Ginrei asked turning from the window view to look at him directly.

That cause Byakuya to pause for a moment to take a calming breath. With an expression reserved for only his grandfather to see, Byakuya Kuchiki, the stoic cold-hearted Captain of the Goeti thirteen, let his guard down. He looked at the floor unable to meet his grandfather's eyes. Though he took a breath to calm himself, it didn't stop his voice from breaking an octave lower when he said.

"My heart is still a prisoner of the past grandfather and I don't believe that I can ever love another again like I did Hisana."

Another deep breath.

"I look at my sister and all I see is the promise I made to my wife on her deathbed before she left me alone with all the love I have for her that turned into all I can feel now; coldness and numb. How can you ask me to marry Rukia when I-I tried to kill her because I honoured the _**law**_?" He said the last word with disdain as if it left a bad taste in his mouth though it was one of his firmest beliefs.

"She had to be rescued by a complete stranger from _me_." He whispered the last word.

With everything in him, Byakuya tried to suppress the trembling that threatens to rise up and rear its ugly head. To not show any more of a pathetic display than he was already showing even if it was to the only person in the world that he trusted. Being the Head of the Kuchiki clan he is seen by many as the strongest member, the levelheaded one with a shroud mind. A powerful leader in his own right with everything at his fingertips. But what they don't see, is that he's always wearing a mask.

After Hisana's funeral, he heard the whispers around him.

-"Why doesn't he cry for her?"

-"Did he even love his wife at all?"

-"The poor woman must have died from a broken heart."

What did they know?

He wanted so much to hurt every last one of them who whispered falsehoods against him and Hisana marriage. He wanted to show the world that he loved her will everything in him. But he couldn't allow himself to act out of the character that is a Kuchiki. He couldn't cry at her funeral but when he was alone, away from prying eyes, his mask cracked under the weight of his grief. Violent sobs rocked his entire body and his tears seem to soak the sheets.

Regret was a nightly visitor and most times when it got to be too much he fled out into the gardens to think and forget; over the years, it's become a routine. The overwhelming love he felt turned to the pain that threatens to wrench his beating heart from his chest.

He regretted a lot of things. Stupid things that he could have prevented like not sharing a room with his own wife because after they were married the Elders decreed that they will not share the same sleeping quarters and he stupidly agreed because it was one of their laws. He regretted never seeing her face first thing in the morning, to watch to sunlight play on it as it rises. He regretted loving at all because for something that feels like heaven he should have known that there would be consequences especially since the object of his affection didn't feel the same about him.

His wife, the love of his life couldn't love him back the way he did her. As for the Elders, all they saw her as was trash and after he married her, a vessel for an heir.

 _And now they wanted to do the same thing to Rukia._

He'd already made so many mistakes with her but this will not be one of them.

Byakuya meet Ginrei's gaze now with a sternness that causes the older Kuchiki to raise one salt and pepper eyebrow.

"I will not marry Rukia, Grandfather. That is my final word on the subject."

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Tissue anyone? That's right I'm the rain-maker.**

 **Hope you enjoyed.**

 **Stay tuned for the next chapter...**

 **Comment and Review guys!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings.**

 **Here's the next chapter - enjoy ;)**

 ** _"_** I am not doing it!" Rukia all but screamed at Ichigo.

"Because you are a scared little midget." The big jerk said.

"Not scared!" She rumbled, her temper building. "I am just don't want anyone to see us going in there in our uniforms." She added the last part in to convince him to see things her way. Rukia had a chilling suspicion that they were being watched and given her recent heat, she wanted to stay under the radar. But the big jerk-face fixated on watching something that look like even she shouldn't be watching it.

Two hours before...

Ichigo and Rukia walked down the street on their way back home. They stopped by an ice-cream parlor and got a couple of cones and then continued on their way only to came to a stop that read 'Fifty Shades of Grey" on a movie theater poster.

About a week ago, Rukia had returned to the real world on vacation thanks to her captain.

' _Ah...bless him'._

After a cloud that looked like a weird pink bunny, she was integrated back into the curriculum of Karakura High. All in a day's work.

It was nice to see her human friends again and forget life as a soul reaper for a couple of weeks.

Ukitake had talked to her, wanting to know what she was so fired up about according to the death toll of fifty two hollows including two Menos Grande. She lied through her teeth of course saying that nothing was wrong and staying away from all things Kuchiki. After a hesitation he smiled that kind smile of his where his eyes close while his mouth split his face. She knew her captain dropped the subject on purpose to make her feel less pressured and she was grateful to him for it.

Rukia knew that elders interest in her had spiked especially after she heard what they said in her absence at the meeting and Byakuya's reaction. She didn't need to be under anything else.

Since that morning of the meeting, things only got stranger at home. Byakuya completely and utterly avoided her as if there was something that she should have done and didn't do. At first she was happy about it because seriously; who the hell orders a brother marries his sister? The embarrassment of it all and what's more, Rukia knew what they wanted from her, how they saw her.

Falling back on habit of leaving out earlier than needed to get to the barracks, diving into paperwork to overwork herself to come home later than usual or not at all-sleeping at the barracks on a cot when the paperwork had been annihilated completely.

So it isn't surprising that the only one that knows she's off planet Seireitei is her captain and the third seats. Not that it would take a genius to know where she was but one else cared anyway.

OK, she felt a little bad about not telling Renji but she didn't need him poking around her business.

So here she was in front of a movie theater with Ichigo arguing about seeing a movie. Yet somehow, she understood that this was his way of showing her a good time. Apart from her shocking him with her return by popping out of his closet one day when he came home from school and the obligatory, " What the hell are you doing here!?" he hadn't said anything else. He still brought her food and let her sleep in his closet. But she could feel his eyes on her, watching every emotion that leaked out onto her face. He could be so cool when he wants to be.

"...maybe they wont let you in because you're such a midget. They might think that you're a just a kid who's still waiting to reach adulthood."

He was such a big idiot-jerk face!

"Call me a midget one more time." Rukia warned, hands clench into fists.

"Or you'll do what?" Ichigo goaded. "Face the facts four point none, you're stuck at midget status for the rest of your life and it seems like you can't even go to a perfectly good movie either."

Rukia was ready to flatten him.

Suddenly he grabbed her by the hand causing a spike of heat to pinken her cheeks. When he dragged her around the corner of the theater and stood right in front of her too closely , pink turned to crimson.

"What are you doing?" She all but screamed.

"Shh." He was poking his head around the side of the building. She guess he saw something or someone that he didn't want to see them or him. "I could have sworn that I saw something that looked like a cat."

"Huh?" Rukia asked, stunned. "A cat?"

He looked at her so solemnly that Rukia swallowed the ridicule she was about to dish. "How many cats do we both know that is black and can talk?"

"Yoriuchi." She confirmed but why would Ichigo be hiding from the cat-woman. Wanting to know why she was hiding too, Rukia asked. "So what's the harm if she sees us?"

Aside from the touch of a catish deviousness, Yoriuchi wasn't all that bad to be around.

At almost two hundred years old, she looked like a chocolate lovers fantasy made flesh.

"I don't know but the hairs on the back of my neck rise whenever I'm around her. Like she is up to something." He paused, seeing the back door of the theater.

"Come on, lets go see that movie."

Rukia pushed at his chest and he backed up.

"You need to cool off some steam plus you owe me for breaking into my house a week ago." He said pointedly.

"Fine. But do you even know what this movie is about?" She said feigning her anger.

"It's a woman wearing a mask, how bad can it be?" He had an mischievous gleam in his eye.

This was why she picked Ichigo to hang out with. He was the devil to her devil plus he reminded her so much of Kaien, it's heartbreaking. If she were to marry someone and she didn't have to rob the cradled, then it would be someone that she could be real with like Ichigo.

The theater was relatively empty since it's during the week and late afternoon. Rukia and Ichigo sneak into through the back. How hard can it be for a seasoned tomboyish soul reaper and battle hardened high school kid?

They were in.

Snagging a great look out spot up high and thanks to the darkness and the cover of thick red curtains, no one saw the two kids in the back above the box seats, waiting for the show to begin. They sat back to back on the broad beam.

"Here." Ichigo offered a bowl of popcorn and Rukia could see that he even had a couple of sodas

The movie hadn't started yet.

"When did you?" Rukia trailed off and just accept it. Being with Ichigo is always fun. .

He shrugged. "I figured you would be hungry and popcorn is a traditional food at a movie."

Nodding Rukia started munching on buttery salted goodness. She almost moaned her approval. If only the soul society had great food like this.

The introduction was starting, the usual advertisements flashing on the screen. People chatter and laughed below them.

"I haven't ask because when you got to my house you looked like you were stressed out about some stuff but I think as your friend I am entitled to know what is going on with you, Rukia."

 _Ichigo had such bad timing._ Rukia thought.

Though she couldn't spill the beans on what was going on in her family because hot headed Ichigo would just go to the soul society, sword drawn and calling anyone with the last name Kuchiki an asshole. She stiffed a shuddered at the thought of another meeting with the wrinkled members of the Elder counsel.

"I cant tell you...," She trailed off a bit, she could feel his scowl. "All the details."

"Does it have something to do with your brother?" There was no anger in his voice at the mention of Byakuya-yet.

When she didnt say anything, he said. "I kinda figured."

To her surprise he dropped it and she figured it was because the movie was starting. The ceiling lights went dim and the chatter dead with them.

"Hey." Rukia said.

"What?"

 _Thanks for being my friend Ichigo._ She thought but she said. "Here's the popcorn."

She passed it to him without looking so she missed the knowing half smile that curved at his lips.

"Pass the soda please." She requested.

The movie started off with woman on the poster doing her hair.

"Why did you want to see this movie anyway?" Rukia asked. She took a straw-full of refreshing orange aid and this time she couldn't hold back the sigh of satisfaction that welled up after the drink washed down the popcorn.

"Keigo suggested it, said that his sister really enjoyed it and she's even more boyish than you are."

She was going to floor him when the movie was over.

"If it sucks then you have to watch it all the way through." She challenged turning slightly to look at him. Knowing he wouldn't back down.

He faced her then, their eyes met.

"Deal."

 **A/N**

 **See you in the next chapter.**

 **Comment and Review guys!**

 **Thanks for reading. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ahem! Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings but I would like to thank him for all his hard work in keeping millions of people entertained.**

 **Thanks, Kubo.**

 **Now, Enjoy this next chapter. Another re-upload.**

 **Review and comment guys! Keeps me produce quality writing that you want to read.**

* * *

Byakuya tried to maintain his calm but his control was slipping. It's been a week since Rukia disappeared and he had a pretty good idea where she was but still he found himself flash stepping to squad thirteen barracks to confront that white-haired old man.

The plan was to calmly walk up to the captain and ask him if he had lost his mind.

In the Soul Society, there were rules and regulations that govern the system. One of those rules includes notifying by a report, the senior family member of any officer if that officer is deployed to the real world in case if something happens such as accidents or death. He lost count of how many times this month he's had to grapple for patience.

"Captain Kuchiki." Ukitake greeted in that happy-go-lucky way of his that made the urge to throttle the man that more pronounced within Byakuya.

They were behind the squad's barracks at the old training grounds; new recruits in line a couple feet from where the two captain's met.

"Why did you send her?" Byakuya demanded, leaving no room for bush-beating.

"I only gave her some time off from her duties." Ukitake explained still graciously smiling.

"Time from her duties?" Byakuya repeated slowly.

The words tasted like ash on his tongue. Though a soul reaper had all rights to use their private time how they saw fit, the fact that Rukia didn't let him know that she was leaving but fled to the real world, no doubt to spend time with that ryoka bastard Ichigo Kurosaki, grated.

She could have spent time at her home where she belongs.

- **And do what?** Senbonzakura asked the question in his mind that he didn't want to know the answer to.

Ignoring his Zanpakutō, Byakuya focused his anger on the captain in front of him. He needed someone else to shoulder this anger on. He didn't want to think about his actions that could have caused Rukia to leave.

 _Not now_. He thought.

The Captain of the thirteenth squad call his two third seats over and the both of them raced to him.

"Take over things for a bit."

"Yes Sir Captain Utitake." They both chorused.

"Hey! Stop saying what I am saying to the Captain." Kiyone Kotetsu shouted.

"Well, I was the one say 'Yes' a nanosecond before you did." Sentarō Kotsubaki yelled back.

Touching his forehead, Ukitake groaned audibly. "Guys!"

"Sorry, Capt'n." They chorused again, snapping a salute. This time they didn't argue at least not until the captain was out of sight and hearing.

The two men moved to Utitake's office which was so different from Byakuya's. While the younger Captain's office had a desk, a chair, ink, and paper along with an assistant station and a bookcase, Captain Utitake's was more of a sit-down and drink tea relax room complete with bamboo mats.

Byakuya closed his eyes, sat down on his folded legs and did what he did best, got to the point but Ukitake cut him off before he got the words out.

"Tea, Kuchiki-sama?"

Byakuya fixed him with a withering glare. "No."

"I know you're upset with me for not reporting to you about Rukia-san but I assure you there is a good reason."

The look on Byakuya's face said 'speak or die'.

Ukitake put on his cheery smile while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Rukia was-wasn't herself." Captain Ukitake said, his nervous cheerful demeanor gone as soon as it appeared, in its place was a sadness so acute that Byakuya's eyes widen for a split second.

"It started three weeks ago," The captain said, his hand tightening around his teacup. "She came in distraught and I wanted to talk to her to see what had saddened her so much but before I got a chance to we got a report about hollow sightings in West Rukon." Ukitake took a sip of his tea then blow out a breath as if remembering something bewildering.

Impatience nettled on his nerves, Byakuya snapped. "What happened?"

"I have never seen her fight like that before." He confessed. "It was as if she was fighting more than just the hollows."

Byakuya knew why she would fight so ferociously and he felt his hand clench into fists. Anger can make a warrior strong and fearless but it can also make them reckless in a battle where a split second of decision could mean the difference between life and death.

And this man allowed her to go into battle like that?

Ukitake turned to him then, eyes awash with a mix of awe and concern.

"Byakuya, she killed two Menos Grande along with forty-eight high-level hollows within the space of fifteen minutes before she unleashed her Shikai."

Byakuya's frown deepen. Rukia killed that many hollows because she was upset? It wasn't surprising that a soul reaper is capable of killing fifty hollows in a day but unless it's will a high-intensity attack like that Ryoka's Getsuga Tenshou or his own but to do that without releasing her Shikai in just minutes?

A torrent of pride swelled within him just as dread settled in his stomach when he realized what would have to be done if an unseated officer showed promise like that.

"Did you report that to the Head Captain?" Byakuya held his breath. Proud as he was of Rukia improving prowess in combat and as good as it is for the Kuchiki name, it wasn't without consequences and that meant that they would try to put her in more dangerous situations.

 _Kaito's interest in her will spike._

He still felt a bitting anger when he recalls what that bastard said at after Rukia left the meeting. In the back of his mind, he wanted to believe that she left straight for her duties. For weeks he's been convincing himself about that but he could have sworn that he sensed a hint of her spiritual pressure and that's the reason she had been so distant.

 _Kami please let it be my imagination._

The things they said about her.

"Byakuya did you hear what I just said?" Ukitake asked looking at him curiously.

 _Damn it._

"What did you say?" He replied arrogantly calm.

After a moment of hesitation, Ukitake said. "The Head Captain was pleased to read my report and he's considering making Rukia a seated officer, after my recommendation-"

"Recommendation?" A deceptive calm flooded his tone. Byakuya had an idea of what kind of ' _recommendation_ ' Ukitake wanted for Rukia because it wasn't the first time the man had praised her skills and since Kaien's death, Rukia has been his primary candidate for Lieutenancy.

 _To hell with that!_

"As her brother and her guardian, I refuse any recommendation for a seated officer position." His words gave Ukitake pause. They were so cold and incontestable that even Byakuya felt a need to take them back for a split second.

Ukitake stood slowly. In a stern voice that boomed in the small office-room, he said.

"Captain Kuchiki, I understand your feelings on the subject but you can't stunt Rukia's professional growth because of them."

Byakuya stood up as well. His feelings? He understands his feelings? Impossible!

"My word is final on this," Byakuya said through gritted teeth.

"I have recommended her for lieutenancy," Ukitake said with steel in his tone. "Whether you like it or not, that girl will be a great Shinigami as she aspires to be just like Kaien!"

Byakuya has had enough. With his spiritual reiatsu rising the air became laden and the room started to tremble.

"Captain Utitake." A member of his squad rushed in then but skeeter to a stop at the tension that bitch slapped him in the face.

Saved from doing something rash, Byakuya turned on his heels then and exited the room.

.

.

.

Byakuya had often wondered if he was the one being one-sided. Was he being selfish to hold her back like this? Was he being selfish to without an heir from the clan because of his...insecurities?

When he went back to his office, he was happy that he didn't see Abari. He needed some time to breathe and collect himself. He sat in his office chair, the wood pressing into his back adding to his discomfort.

Three weeks before he told his grandfather that he was blatantly disregarding his proposal for marrying Rukia. A lie. He'd also used some choice words with Kaito and the members of the Council of Elders. His hand went to his face when he recalled his behavior. It was like he was the old Byakuya; hotheaded and rash. But the council was at fault as well for pushing him like that.

 _If they only understood the pain._

No. He couldn't go through that again.

Ginrei's voice rang in his head plain from the moment he spoke it three weeks ago.

 _"Byakuya, you have a duty as the head of the clan to produce an heir."_

At the time Byakuya wanted to roar his frustration which is somewhere along the lines of 'I bloody know that already!'

 _"You're a handsome man Byakuya with all the wealth of a king."_

Again, he knew this. Byakuya had never been ignorant of his charms; most times he endeavors to forget that he has a body at all, much more one with a pleasing countenance. Especially when he was around Rukia.

Ukitake talking about her with such praise made him...uneasy. He would have loved to be the one to witness her growing prowess. How many others were there to see what he should have?

He knew that he shouldn't want what he secretly craved. What he would gladly kill for but just once-for the briefest of moments-he could close his eyes and imagine that Rukia was...his. To have. To touch. He must be a twisted man.

 _She's my sister. My promise to Hisana._

"I'm a monster. How can I be with someone that I tried to kill? Would have stood by and watch be killed if Kurosake didn't intervene."

When thoughts of Rukia finally came to his mind, he pressed them down out of shame and tried to think of his time with Hisana. Tried to remember her smile, the first time they made love.

He frowns at the memory.

He had fought to be with Hisana, going against everything his family advised and when they were finally together, he continued to fight just to have her in his arms at appropriate times. Even then it wasn't a fraction of the love he gave to her. When he'd touched Hisana, she tolerated his affections.

She wanted to find her precious sister; guilt over the mistake she made robbed him of her love, her thoughts. Before she died she had thanked him for loving her as if it was a service that she was being polite about. But she never told him that she loved him back. She only said that she was grateful.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Thanks for reading :)**

 **If you enjoyed, don't forget to give me a review or** a like **.**

 **Have a comment to make?**

 **I'm all ears.**

 **See you in the next chapter :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone,**

 **Thank you for your continuous support and the time you spent in reading my first fanfic. This is a reload of chapter six, a wonderful chapter before but there was a lot of spelling errors and issues that made the first story read a little bumpy. So I'm hoping that this will help make your reading experience much better. Thanks again for sticking with me and I hope to upload more chapter soon for all of my fanfic stories that are incomplete.**

 **Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings.**

 **Please Comment, review and like.**

 **Enjoy! :)**

* * *

Two days had passed since the 'dirty deeds movie' as Ichigo dubbed it and now it was time to go back to her world. Rukia had to go to Kisuke Urahara's shop to drop off her gigai as well as pick up some things that she had ordered.

After emerging from the back door of the movie theatre, Ichigo looked like a cross between a beet and a carrot with his flushed face and orange spiky hair. Rukia blushed so much she must have used a gallon of blood in her face and neck alone. Ok maybe they didn't have to really go through with the challenge of watching the movie completely but secretly Rukia found it- on the upside...educating. Her gigai made her feel things that she rarely felt in her spirit form.

Thankfully it wasn't as strong as when she's in her spirit form; the frenzied need could be maddening. Soul Reapers are like humans in many ways. They bled, they breathe, ate; they had sex and had children -although the last two are sparing. Unlike humans, who have urges that come and go on a regular basis, soul reapers can channel their baser urges into different things.

The link between the mind is more straightforward without a physical body in the way.

This is why soul reapers can master all fractions of thought, crystallizing them into manifestations like Kudo, Shikai and Bankai. Keen focus and training take a lot of energy.

But there is, however, a downside.

Not that Soul Reapers are not capable of passionate lovemaking or baby production if there is love between the two partners, a strong attraction or in the case of nobles, a matched in bloodline, but all that lack of attention to one's libido can come back in a rush.

There are measures that can be taken to keep the worst of it at bay. Rukia had experienced the frenzied haze after coming into maturity in her twentieth year and had to report to Captain Unohana's office to get something to quell the feelings she had. Depending on how long the soul has deprived itself of the energies of pleasure, it builds over time and like anything under pressure, sooner or later it will go boom.

"Alright!" Kisuke said, his infamous fan covering half of his face, his stripe hat on his head shading his eyes and the top half of his nose. He was wearing what he always wore whenever she saw him and Rukia wondered if that guy ever changed his clothes or did he really have that many of the same outfits?

Part of his character I guess.

"The Senkaimon is ready and so are your packages!"

Rukia was glad that Ichigo was at school. She kind of felt bad about taking off without saying anything. She hadn't done that since Aizen send her brother and Renji after her when she left the Soul Society the first time. But she didn't want him to see what she was taking back to home or what Kisuke had procured for her, either.

After seeing Fifty Shades Of Grey Rukia, for the first time in her everlasting life, felt girlish and decided to take that old-age from Rangiku which went somewhere along the lines of, 'Shopping in the real world is fun only if you're a girl,' or something like that.

The problem was, she didn't go shopping for anything but chappy collectables or food. What she wanted was a little out of her usually shopping list.

As she browsed the stores , she felt a little embarrassed because when she had found the risque with the items of display in the viewing window, she had turned pink then red and would have successfully completed her 360 degrees retreat if she hadn't instantly hit a bouncy wall of boobs attached to a tall chocolate Goddess of Flash.

"Yo!" Yoruichi greeted and grabbed on to her arms before she could do anything stupid-like tried to outrun the fastest being on record in the soul society.

Rukia shivered as she recalled the memory but she couldn't complain about the experience too much. It could even be described as as...enjoyable.

"One Chappy soul bag-pack able to retain as much human world things as you are physically capable of carrying." Kisuke listed out the merchandise professional.

"One feeling regulator."

Rukia thought he rose an eyebrow at that but he hid it under the green hat so well that she could only guess based on his slight pause but she quickly notices that he was looking in the box that the object should be in and frowning

The box had a silvery metallic finish, smaller than a jewellery box with an emblem of what looked like a small gold fan on it. Looking much like the one in the man's hand before her.

"What is it?" she asked with all the alarm of a possible disgruntle client.

She ordered that just to make sure that what she was feeling in the gi-gai didn't transfer into her after she ditched it. That movie had really done a number on her. Night after night inside Ichigo's closet she had grown wet between her thighs, her breasts swelled achingly. She notices that she repeatedly had urges to touch herself in places that she hadn't in ages as thoughts of the scenes played in her mind. Only the characters were different.

"Oh!" Kisuke exclaimed. "Here they are."

"They?" she replied dubiously.

Kisuke gave her a sharp nod then pop the led of the box open, reached into it, pulling out two small tear buds looking things that were attached to clips.

"What are those?"

Kisuke looks at her directly. "Feeling suppressors."

Rukia took the two buds in her hand, each the size of the bottle cap with the same emblem on the outsides of the clips.

"I had to make them reiatsu specific," Kisuke said taking each of the buds from her and placing them in her ear and fixing the clips onto her upper earlobe. "The suppressor work in harmony with the wearer, like a complimenting element."

They didn't feel like they complimented anything! She wanted to snap.

Almost like he was reading her thoughts, Kisuke said. "They might take some getting used to but in a day or two they will be more settled."

"How long do I have to wear them to make sure that any uncharacteristic behaviours don't happen?" Rukia asked trying to select her words carefully and touching the buds lightly with her fingertips. She hasn't told Kisuke the full story as to why the felling suppressors were needed because he didn't need to know that. So she vague it up. Need feeling suppressors. When he had suggested Unohana, she had snapped and asked if he wanted her business or not. she couldn't bear to go back to squad four and go through having to explain that again.

"Seven days, take them off at night but..." He trailed off

"But what?" It was bad enough that she was going to have to wear these weird looking things constantly.

Kisuke leaned down from his height to her ear as if imparting a secret. "You might get addicted to them."

Though she wanted to punch him in the nose, she decided that she would ask a question first.

"Is that bad?" With her small fists clenching at her sides, she awaited his response.

Urahara hesitated for long moments. Then he burst out "No, not at all!"

Her fists connected with his jaw.

If Rukia was using her own Senkaimon then she would be stepping out into the rear gardens of Kuchiki manor right now but as it were she used Urahara's, landing in west Rukon district. It was night here although she left the real world mid-morning. Strapping her soul chappy knapsack tighter on her over her shoulders, the mini chappy figure attached to the side pocket, swished from side to side with every movement. She began walking towards the Goeti thirteen. Looking around the district she notices that some of the walls of the homes now abandoned was still splattered with dark hollow blood.

"This was the site of the last hollow attack," Rukia said absently.

Looking back now she felt pretty badass about it. Killing all those hollows before releasing her Shikai? When she told Ichigo about it, he grudgingly told her how cool that was after saying how he could have done the same in half the time. He's such a knuckled headed idiot.

Thinking about him caused a smile to bloom on her face followed by a blush.

She wasn't the only one that movie had educated.

The next day after seeing the movie, his fist had kissed Keigo's face. And the same night Ichigo had kissed...her.

It was a rainy afternoon as they hurried to get home. The storm continued into the night.

As she'd laid in his closet restless, her body reacting to the weather, Rukia sought a distraction.

Sliding the closet door open she opens her mouth to call to her teenage roommate only to choke on a gasp when she saw where his hand was. Ichigo's other hand was gripping the sheet while he adjusted himself.

When he realized that she was staring at him touching himself, he cried out, nearly falling off the bed and she quickly shut the closet door.

After what seemed like an hour, she heard him exit the room, only to return moments later forcefully opening the sliding down, she had fought, holding on to the door to prevent him access. When he pried the door open with his brutish strength and they were both panting, he had stared at her with a hungry look in his eyes.

Words were not what they needed. Somewhere in the silence between them, Rukia moved from the closet to stand before him.

"I want to try something." He'd said in a hoarse whisper surprising her since she was expecting some awkward apology from the guy who just got caught in the middle of pleasuring himself.

Without warning, he leaned down, his hand snaked around her waist and he kissed her on her lips.

It was inexperienced. Rushed. Innocent.

Was this his first kiss?

Her chest swelled against his muscular one.

Standing there, stunned by his actions, Rukia wondered in the back of her mind where the magic was. This wasn't her first kiss. She grew up in the Rukongai for crying out loud, it was a miracle she still had her virginity. But she had never experienced that passion that she'd heard about. Read about.

Suddenly a crash sounded from her left rippling the memory.

Rukia swung her head around in the direction. Kami! It was too loud in her ears!

Another crash sent dust and smoke floating up to the sky then came the unholy roar of a hollow. Rukia's hands went to defend her ears, to yank out the buds.

What the hell did these buds do? Increase every sound? They sure as hell didn't suppress her feelings.

Damn that hats and cloaks guy! He said that they will take some getting used to but this was just ridiculous!

Awkwardly she rushed to the crashing sounds- with one hand on her sword, the other over one ear while the squashing the next ear against her hiked up shoulder. At some point, she'd dropped her Chappy backpack as she tried to pull the buds out again. They wouldn't budge.

They made the crash sounds amplified but that wasn't the only thing. Rukia could have sworn that she could hear the hollows breathing? From this distance? She couldn't even see them yet.

No, wait, not just breathing.

As she kept running she slowly removed her hands from her ears. Taking a deep breath, she notices that she could feel the pulse of everything around her. Like taut cords interrupted by percussion, they vibrated. A rhythm surrounding them like a disturbed pool of water and somehow she could tell where each of them was coming from.

The panic of the residents, the hunger of the hollows, their beating hearts, the whistle of the wind through trees, through strains of hair; energy pulsated in the air like a beat.

She could feel it all and they all called to her dance.

The banging sounds of the signalling tower alerted everyone to the disturbance.

"The west Rukon district has been invaded by class ten hollows." A voice from a hell butterfly announced. It repeated its urgent announcement as Soul Reapers like bees from a ruffled hive rushed towards the area.

A class ten hollow has all the power of a Menos Grande. But unlike the Menos, they were much smaller and cunning. Low-level soul reapers would have to be in a group to wound one. Captains would need to go Bankai or have a high-intensity Shikai to defeat one.

"Squad six, move out!" Renji commanded leading scores of soul reapers behind him. For hotheads like Abari, this was a thrill. A challenge that he's been waiting on like a child waits for the summer or Christmas/

"Let's get that class ten hollow before the other squads do. Move your asses!" He bellowed and was answered with a collective "Yeah!"

Byakuya wanted to roll his eyes.

Though he was moving at flash step speeds, covering miles under his feet in seconds, the others were doing the same and it didn't matter if he was faster he could still hear them. He could have been in the world of the living and he would still hear them. How the hell did he get stuck with a bunch of vulgar misfits-?

His body tensed when he got a slight hint of snow reiatsu mingling with the hollow. Byakuya knew that it wasn't Captain Hitsugaya's reiatsu. The young white hair captain was some paces behind him and there was only one more ice Zanpakutō in all of the Seireitei.

Rukia!

A.N

There you have it Chapter six delivered as promised.

It's only a promise of things to come. Juice, interesting, lemony things. HEE! HEE! :)

You have to read the next on to find out.

As always and their much appreciated. Please Comment, review and like.

Always enjoy your life!

See yah!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter seven everybody and I hope you like it!**

 **Updating as fast as I can with everything else that is happening in the life of me. So share with me your comments and I am every grateful for your reviews and likes**

 **Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings.**

 **Here we go...**

She tried recalled Kisake's instructions on how to use the feel suppressors.

"These are a new design and because you are a shinigami who uses a dance command to activate your shikai, then I have added a music playlist to them which you have to listen to completely before you can regulate it to your liking!"

At the time she wanted to give him another punch to the face for being stupid! She had never needed music while she had been fighting. It's distracting. How the hell was she supposed to concentrate?

He continued.

"They will be connected to your reiatsu. And a dance is only movement of your limbs without a rhythm to follow if there is no music." He'd said that in a rare bout of seriousness. "Everything is complete at your fingertips, literally. All you have to do is gentle swipe from down or up once to turn them on or off. Control your reiatsu and focus it on what you want to suppress. So simple."

He then turn on the ear buds by swiping down and put a watch like device on her wrist.

When she had asked what the watch was for? He had replied blithely

"More information is in your soul bag." Before hurriedly pushing her to the senkaimon.

Now with every step she took, there was a rhythm in her movements, guiding her to the fray. Her soul body was on hypersensitive, tingling; she could feel the sway in her hips for goodness sakes' as she sauntered closer and she found that she kind of-in a weird way- liked it. It was as if she suddenly dawned the graceful confidence she was always meant to have.

Her sword was pulsing in her grip, each thrum in line with her own heart beat.

They were one.

The hollows must have picked up on her scent because they all turned to her general direction with gaping mouths and white masks. Rukia's new confidence fled when she notice that they were class tens. They are rare but only captain level soul reapers are able to fight them one on one. Her first impulse was to run and wait for backup.

But Rukia was well...Rukia. And she never runs from a battle.

"Well, well! What _do_ we have here?" One said in a voice that sounded like it was dragged over rough stone. "A soul reaper."

 _Shit! There are five of these things here._ She thought in dread. She already had her sword in front of her. A talisman. Her defense against these horrors.

-"What can one little soul reaper do to us?" another said his smug tone pissing her off because she knew that he was right.

What could she do against class ten hollows? She was not even a seated offer.

A child's voice sounded then. A little girl-she was crying over someone, shaking them with her weak baby hands and weakness. The dark pool underneath them was a sign that the woman wasn't going getting up. More of them will die if she doesn't do something. The child continued wail. She understood what it feels like to wake up without anyone- to be alone in the dangerous Rukon district. Unbidden her memories of her own childhood rose up and something in her snapped.

The small display on the watch changed in response to her reiatsu from one set of numbers and words to the next then finally stopped on a track.

"Shirayuki, they will all die feeling your cold kiss of death." Rukia whispered to her sword. the menace in her tone was as lethal as venom. It was then that she noticed something strange; she was-already in Shikai? No time to marvel because the class tens were already surrounding her. With her height, they all look like skystrapers.

 _It would be really great if I had some backup -_

 _-You have all the power within us._ Sode no Shirayuki whispered in her mind.

Rukia blinked. How can she be hearing her Zanpakutō's voice so readily in her head?

- _It's the suppressors._ Shirayuki answered her unspoken question.

- _I think we should rename them because they're not suppressing anything. They are amplifying everything._ Rukia suggested.

As if she never spoke, Shirayuki said.

- _Follow the rhythm Rukia. All things have one. You felt it before; their hearts, their breaths. The pulse of everything around you is like a consistent chain. But if you focus, you'll be able to find that single cord that's just a little off. Where the rhythm is broken, there will be you're enemies' weakness. Like shattering a diamond by hitting just the right spot._

- _a weak link in the chain._ Rukia supplied.

Shirayuki sighed, obviously not pleased with Rukia's unsophisticated rendition.

- _I will be your instructor in these matters, follow each step exactly as I do it._

 _-how can I follow steps in the middle of a battle!?_ Rukia snapped at her sword spirit.

This was so surreal. Here she was in the middle of a death trap, surrounded by class ten hollows and she was arguing with her Zanpakutō in her head.

"You're as good as dead bitch." One of the hollows declared with a sneer.

She felt Shirayuki's reiatsu flare at that insult. While Rukia might not be noble by birth, her Zanpakutō sure thought S _he_ was. Rukia felt the need to release her own reiatsu; a declaration of war.

Shirayuki was right. They are one.

Some song was playing through the buds. 'Invasion', the watch said. The lyrics clear in her head and the beat just right for the mode she was in.

The hollows roared again.

"Come on then!" Both she and Shirayuki said as one.

One of the hollows were coming behind her.

 _-If you are to make it out of this alive Rukia, you must not hesitate. Trust me completely. Trust yourself._ Shirayuki said.

The hollows were circling now; trying to confuse her. They were like a blur and there was no way she could use Shakkaho to fire at them.

Wait a second.

When she came into view before, they weren't looking at her, they were scenting her reiatsu. Though they have eyes, hollows rarely use them. They are more like animals, using their noses to scent souls and read their targets reiatsu level.

- _Blind them_. Shirayuki spoke softly with silky menace in her head.

- _Right_.

Closing her eyes she could feel their bodies tensing up to strike, miles accumulating under their feet as particles of dust fly with every movement they made.

-"Give up already?" One said. "Then die!" She felt rather than heard when the muscles in their feet contracted as they faced her direction.

The rhythm broken.

She had to study all the kido spells when she was still at Soul Academy but she had never been able to master much of them since a soul reaper had to have enormous energy to use a high level kido spell or centuries of practise to build up stamina to handle them.

Now with energy and power like she'd never known roiling through her, in a loud voice Rukia declared. "Bakudo Number: 26 Kyokko"

Hiding her reiatsu completely from them. She heard the hollows bellow in confusion.

"Where the fuck did she go?" one asked

"The little slut ran away." Another spat.

 _-That's it!_

 _-Keep your wits about you. Shirayuki sneer._ But Rukia knew that she was peeved as well, in fact she was the reason she was feeling this way, getting rattle by every comment that the hollows made.

Taking a deep breath, she fast stepped to were the child was still sobbing. She could see that the parents were barely alive. She had to hurry.

Whispering Rukia touched a wall of house the little girl was close to. "Bakudo number: 20 Kyomon." The glass-like barrier stretched from one end of the street to the next sealing in the child and any other residents on the other side and leaving her on the outside to face the class tens. Rukia was surprised that they hadn't tried to take the child or another of the resident souls to use as a hostage. They seemed more focused on finding her.

"Lucky me."

"Don't get carried away bitch."

Rukia's eyes went wide when a hollow suddenly appeared behind her. Impossible! They shouldn't be able to see her at all. Unless...

Claws like daggers stab into her back.

Rukia cried out, stumbling forward; blood-warm and thick ran down her sides and lower back.

Fool! How could she not notice a sixth presence.

- _Calm yourself and focus._ Shirayuki bit out. Panting.

- _Bleeding out here!_

 _-As am I, so I will lend you the rest of my strength if you prove to me that you will not waste it._

Rukia felt her wound cooling rapidly. Ice was closing around the slashes to stop the blood. Her breaths started to fog in the summer night air. The Rukongai was silent.

If there were any residents then they were in hiding. Death was here, just off in the shadows waiting for it's next meal. She is a Death-goddess. She released her reiatsu to the max

"No Love" started playing in through the buds; the rhythm of her enemies vibrating down to her bones.

Here they come. Three attacking from the back, three in front.

She released her first dance and jumped out of the circle before the white moon bath the brown earth in silvery white light and freeze anything in their sphere.

One frozen hollow down. Five to go.

Another was coming from behind. She flashstepped, feinting left then parried right slicing and freezing fleshing. A bellow of pain came from the thing as it collapsed to it's knees. They ice kept creeping up it's body like a vine. Another slash! An arm got eaten by ice, cracked and crumble. It was like she could predict where they were coming from, where they will attack.

Her movements, a marriage between grace and death as she killed with sword and skill.

The finally hollow remain, the bastard who waited like a coward and stabbed her in the back.

"It's a little too late to say that you're sorry now" the song said.

 **A.N**

 **Thanks for reading and I hoped you liked it. Because enjoyed creating and crafting every sentence.**

 **That's it for chapter seven and what a chapter it was. Excitement and nail biting.**

 **If you have any comments , please feel free to share.**

 **And remember to review and like.**

 **See you in the next one.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter seven is gone and here comes eight.**

 **Hope you love it . I enjoyed writing it.**

 **Special thanks for reading and to all my reviewers out there. Thanks for taking the time to inspire me to do more in the world of the Kuchikis.**

 **Ahem...**

 **Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings.**

 **Enjoy...;)**

When Byakuya came across a Chappy bag in the street, worry ate at him. To make matters worst? He couldn't understand why he couldn't sense her reiatsu at all.

 _Why did she come through here instead of using the kuchiki personal Senkaimon?_

Hearing bellows he rushed to save her.

 _Am I too late?_

Sweat broke out on his upper lip.

He ran and then skitted to a stop over ice covered ground. Byakuya Kuchiki-like, of course. Renji and other members of squads failed achieve the same graceful halt; falling on themselves and kissing the ground. Some of the others rocked back on their heels, landing on their backs.

If he didn't see it for himself he wouldn't have believed it. Rukia, fighting and winning against six class ten hollows, he counted the bodies on the ground destroyed by her ice.

Pride swelled in him.

And her _grace_ as she execute each killing blow, left him breathless. It was like he was watching a fluid dance.

"Taicho!" Renji called to him interrupting the moment. The tall red headed Shinigami rubbed his hands over his hands over his arms briskly.

"What is it Abari?" Byakuya's tone was curt but Renji was...oblivious or just used to his Captain's manner of addressing him.

He was only half listening to Renji rambling because Rukia was the better view. The way she fights. he hadn't really been in a battle with her and he had not been able to practice with, preferring solace. What a fool he had been. To not be the first one to witness this side of Rukia. He wanted to kick himself for his arrogance.

Byakuya's attention was spend on the small fierce female before him. It was not lost on him that she had put up a kido spell that most high level soul reapers were still trying to master. And to still have the energy to beat five class tens? he marveled at her anew as he continued to watch.

It was as if she was foreseeing her opponent's moves.

His breath left him when he saw the hollow knock Sode no Shirayuki from her hand and launched it claws at her like projectiles.

Rukia back flipped into the air to get some distance.

Knowing where he would come from next, she counted off the second until the rhythm will be broken again. During the fight, she had notice that there was a pattern it.

"Three, two, one." Like a shot the hollow was behind her just as she predicted.

"You fucking slut!" the hollow spat "I'll eat your damn heart!"

 _He's desperate. He wants to put me off my guard_.

she was tired. Panting from the use of spells and swings from her sword. The slashes she received earlier were deeper than she thought.

She leaped up and in mid-air Rukia turned to the hollow knowing that he was about to launch one of those claws at her again.

"Bakudou number 1: Sai"

Immediately his arms were locked behind his back but she knew it wouldn't hold him for long. Flash stepping to the ground directly below the hollow she use her Ice-Rope Connection to grab Sode no Shirayuki to her hand.

Dispassionately , stoic with every bit of Kuchiki noble blood that didn't flow through her she gave the command; "Some no mai," the hollow twisted out of the spell long enough for their eyes to meet. she could see that it had drained him a little or else he would have moved. But that didn't matter now. It was over.

"Tsukishiro!"

A cyliner of ice engulf him freezing the undisguise malice on his face before shattering into large pieces of ice.

Rukia turned from the sight swiping her flawless white sword before her in an arch through the air then released the shikai.

- _Thank you Shirayuki_ -.

Dizziness assailed her!

Damn! She forgot that Shirayuki was holding up her wounds with her power, when she released her Shikai that power when with it. Like a marionette doll that had her strings cut, Rukia's legs forgot their purpose. Blood pour from her wounds in rivers then blackness raced against the ground that came at her in a rush.

Byakuya didn't know how to feel as he paced in Rukia's room hours since the fight.

Squad four was on hand and thank Kami for that because when the barrier lifted and he caught her in his hands, they were instantly soaked in blood from the wound on her back.

Feelings conflicted within him. Questions on their heels.

What the hell was she thinking? Why didn't she wait for backup?

But Kami help him if he wasn't damn proud of her too. Defeating that many class tens by herself.

"She will be alright Captain Kuchiki." Captain Unohana had said "The wounds were poisoned but I believe I can find an antidote for it that will help her to sweat out the remainder of it."

Though his face betrayed nothing, all the while Byakuya fists clenched and unclench around the straps of Rukia's bag, holding on to it as if it was his last foothold in the world. He'd closed his eyes trying to compose himself. He didn't know what he would do if he lost her.

"She needs rest, of course at the squad four baracks-."

At Byakuya's look she amended. "Or at home as long as she is not disturbed."

"I will ensure that she is well cared for." Byakuya said, monotone in place but he exhaled a pent up breath silently.

Unohana's brows creased together when she notice the strange contraption on Rukia's wrist and the things in her ears. He had been wondering about them as well but he was too concern about her well being to pay them any real attention.

What the hell were they? And why was Rukia wearing them?

"Do you know what those things are?" He asked but before she could say anything they heard a familar voice say.

"Get the hell out of my way." The booming voice of Kenpachi Zaraki sounded too close for his liking. Instantly his hand went to his sword hilt ready to cut the bastard down if he comes any closer. His pack of dogs were with him as well and that pink haired menace that stole his Koi fish!

"Captain Zaraki." Unohana said, that smile on her face like an angel promised that the devil will be out in a minute. "You're disturbing my patient."

Zaraki ignored her. With his tall rangy build, he easy saw over them to the petite soul reaper in the middle of the squad four officers.

"Ken-chan, Ken-chan" The pink menace squeaked from his shoulder. "Rukia is sleeping."

"Get out of the way Kenpachi Zaraki!" Byakuya warned him dangerously, his sword already drawn.

"I came here for a fight." He grinned, which was more threatening with his battle scared visage. "So imagine my surprise when I hear that Rukia Kuchiki, an unseated officer took _my_ prey." With his jagged edge sword over his right shoulder, he licked his lower lip with his long tongue. His gaze had all the warmth of a predator.

"Well fuck! You Kuchikis are a real pain in the ass. She could have left one of the damn class tens." His gaze lingering on Rukia too long for Byakuya's liking. "Didn't know she was so strong." He said in a lazy growl, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

Byakuya's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword much to Zaraki's delight, who grinned wider. The other soul reapers present fell silent, horror freezing them in place. Between Captain Kuchiki and Captain Zaraki, ordinary shinigami usually avoid them completely outside of respectful pleasantries, much less being too close to see the fight that could erase the Rukongai off the soul map.

"Captain Kuchiki you have to see to Rukia-san's recovery." Unohana quickly interrupted.

Before he turned away, his eyes was still on Rukia, Kenpachi said.

"She'll wake up soon enough." The threat clear in his voice.

 **A.N**

 **Pink Menace stole the B's koi fish and he's still mad about it. :0 lol's all around.**

 **Hope you liked and if you did. Be sure to like, review, and comment'**

 **See you in the next chapter**.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine and I bet that you will love it.**

 **But do review and tell me how you really feel.**

 **Like too.**

 **thanks for reading!**

 **:) enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Tito Kubo is the creator of bleach. I am the creator of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or any of his scenes or settings.**

He was pacing the length of the room trying to calm his reiatsu down. Byakuya could have lost her-again! He took a deep breath and closed his eyes; a mixture of worry and anger churning in his gut.

 _What the hell was she thinking!?_

The poison that the hollow had injected into her rejected some Kidou emergency healing spells that even Captain Unohana could administer on spot.

Now that she was sleeping, those things were still in her ears and the watch-like contraption on her wrist which glowed with numbers on the small screen.

Squad four had tried to remove them but failed. They will be having a talk as soon as she was well enough to explain to him what was going on.

Her Chappy bag sat on her small desk on the far side of the room and he had to admit that his curiosity was eating at him. Byakuya was going through all the reasons why he should respect her privacy in his head when a loud beeping sound came from the bag.

Startled and fearing that the sound would wake her up, he flashstepped to the bag and then out the door to his room, determined to silenced whatever it was.

The room was dimmed inside his chambers per his instructions to the servants. Once he was out in the office or on a mission, they wouldn't light the lamps but keep a firefly vine on in the bathroom and with all the commotions concerning Rukia, he could see that they had simply just forgotten.

Opening the bag and turning the contents out on his desk he ignored the soft thuds and rustling of plastics that came out as he dump the contents.

When he found the box that beeped, he turned it over and oddly enough found a button that said 'silent'. He pressed it and it stopped beeping. He could barely see that there was a fan icon on it, like the ones on the ear pieces and the strap of the watch Rukia was wearing. He put it aside, deciding that he would take it back to the Rukia's room now that the noise was gone.

He reached over to where the lamp was usually on his lit the tinder.

When he reached down to pick up the items that fell out of the bag, Byakuya froze.

As the light spilled onto his desk his eyes adjusted to the other things that the deceptively innocent Bunny bag had hidden, then they went wide. Still in their packages were the most provocative undergarments he had ever had the pleasure of seeing.

He swallowed over the sudden dryness in his throat.

"Rukia wears...these?"

There were ten packages in all and all of them were erotic as hell. The package all had an image of a model on the front wearing the garments within them. One package was a bra and panties set made only of mesh and silk that concealed as much as it revealed. Others were lace short night dresses in different colors. He held up the red, black and pink ones in his grip. He liked all three. Then another was _only_ made of string and stuffed rabbits.

Eyes riveted on where the string ended and the bunnies began; he shuddered involuntarily. The heat of his body accelerating a few notches. Against his will his mind thought about what it would be like to watch Rukia emerge from his bathroom wearing nothing but that.

"No!" He rasped, his breaths becoming shallow. "Stop this." He chided himself.

He hurriedly put the packages back cursing his keen eyes with each moment that passed as they registered more things that he was too caught up to look at while he was _examining_ her purchases.

She had bought small sexy matching boots and heels, scented candles, massage oils, a-a blind fold and silk restraints? He raised his eyebrows at that.

Byakuya never consider himself to be a pervert but when a man is face with these challenges...

All thoughts stopped in his head when he read the last package which was labeled 'strawberry edible panties.'

His normal deep voice became hoarse when he said, "Kami in heaven. Preserve me."

The image of her wearing only these as he lower his mouth to taste them betwixt her creamy thighs. Byakuya groaned aloud and gripped the edge of his oak desk to steady himself. Lust like fire burned within him, threatening to madden him. His body acted against his better senses as blood rushed to his groin making him as hard as the oak that he gripped.

He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths; struggling for calm. To deaden the wanting within himself as he had so many times before.

"Deny it." He commanded himself, willing control back into his grasp. "Deny it!"

For more than over half a century he had not shared himself with another. All the women who tried to get his attention had failed to impress him. Not because they were not beautiful, talented or of good noble standing but they were all so-shallow and he saw through them like he could the bottom of any shallow pool.

Everything about them from their conversations, their laughter, the looks that they gave him. Nothing was genuine.

Hisana was different.

In the rare moments that she looked at him with that shy smile on her face, he felt like she saw _him_. Without the title and the prestige but it was just that she couldn't be with him.

Could Rukia?

One of the reasons he blatantly lied to his grandfather was because he couldn't bear the thought of marrying someone else that he could love and they didn't love him back the same way. Not again.

And he feared that his feelings - as much as he tries to deny them- would be more than what he had ever felt for his late wife. If Hisana was a silent river that intrigued him, Rukia was the ocean. Unpredictable and fierce with a horizon that whispered to him all the things that he secretly wanted. And that excite the hell out of him. If he let go of his control, he would be lost.

- _Would that be so bad?_ Senbonzakura asked in his mind.

_ _Silence!_ He bit out.

A knock sounded on the door and Byakuya took another deep breath to channel his focus by force to whatever business was now at his door.

"Yes." He said sounding not the least shaken as he still felt.

"Byakuya-sama I have a letter here from Kaito-sama." The servant said respectfully.

He wanted to curse something foul but opted for clenching his fists instead.

The Elder had been rude and disrespectful the last time they saw each other and he could only guess what Kaito Kuchiki had to say to him now.

He crossed the large bedroom quickly,slide the door open and took the letter from the servant, who bowed and departed immediately after asking if there was anything else.

Opening the letter he read the contents which was requesting an audience with him tomorrow at noon at Kaito's mansion.

Just thinking about that awful meeting three weeks before sent a finger of cold fury up his spine.

"... _That girl should be happy that we allowed her to be apart of this family."_ Kaito had said at their last meeting. His voice curt.

Rukia had just left and Byakuya thought he had said his final piece about the idea of marrying her. But Kaito wasn't done.

" _She was nothing!"_ He snarled through clenched teeth. That superior look in his eyes as if the sun rose and set because it pleases him. _"She didn't even have a last name when we adopted her and now she has everything any girl would kill to have."_

Turning to the other members of the council he continue with his self-righteous speech.

 _"did you see her face before she left? Feigning embarrassment as if she didn't grow up in the slums where girls' skirts are hiked behind back alleys routinely in the middle of the day."_

 _"Kaito, please!" Ayame Kuchiki rebuked._

By this point Byakuya was seething with rage akin to a bubbling volcano about to erupt but he started seeing red when the old snake-faced prune turn back to him and said.

 _"Tell us, Byakuya Sama"_ Kaito sneered, a disrespect that deserved it's own punishment but he had to go on too consumed by his own pompousness to realize the wave of rage he was tempting from the younger Kuchiki. _"Was your late wife untouched on your wedding night?" He asked smugly. "Blood follows blood. Does it not?"_

It's against the law of the Kuchiki clan to kill an elder unless they went on a killing spree of other souls, committed acts of treason against the family or the soul society in general. But that law needed to be amended.

When Byakuya's fist landed into the man's jaw, he heard an audible 'pop' before the bastard crashed to the ground. He already on top of the down elder, his robes in his grip before he comprehended what he was doing. He was sure that the words; 'fucking and son of a bitch' had already passed his lips. Loudly.

Drawing back his fist for another, he felt hands holding him back. He allow it after attempting to hit him again, because somewhere in his red hazed anger, he knew that he just proven Kaito's point. A second later, Kaito's robes were out of his hand and some members of council supporting him to stand on his feet.

Byakuya shrug off the hands on him, his gaze murderous and he wanted to really hurt him. Because of Kaito, the council now knew that Hisana wasn't a virgin when he'd married her. Her memory was more tainted in their minds than it ever was.

It had never bothered him like it does now. All that matter was that she was his.

Byakuya frowned. Why hadn't he heard an outrage or at least a gasp of disappointment when Kaito disclosed that bit of trivia about his personal life?

Could they have known before this so called meeting?

As if in reverse, his mind recalled their faces before his fist landed that broke Kaito's jaw. Kuchikis were usually collective and calm but their eyes were usually tell tales of how they felt. Byakuya had supplemented his reactions by closing his eyes.

Remembering now, there was none among his elders that had a startled reaction, not even a jolt of indignation.

But for how long had they known?

Like any other household with servants, there wasn't a lot that could be kept secret. The Kuchiki Manor was designed with foot thick walls for fortitude and privacy. No one could hear what was going on in a room if the doors and windows are closed. But during the day when maids and servants ran rampant, completing their duties. It's wasn't so easy to keep everything under-wraps. Between the daily management of the manor , gossip was the only thing that broke up the mundane routine.

Had a servant reported back to Kaito or members of the counsel the morning after Hisana's and his wedding night to tell them about the clean wrinkled sheets?

Were they laughing at him behind his back all this time?

He needed to get out of there before he killed someone; he was already on the razor's edge at Kaito's outburst.

To have Hisana's memory more tainted than the clan already had it in their heads makes him question the reigns on his control right now.

It had never bothered him before that he wasn't Hisana's first even though she was his.

It was seen as below a kuchiki's station and undignified to go to a pleasure house to earn one's skill in the bedroom. So on the night of his wedding he was the embodiment of nerves and embarrassment for his lack of experience on how to pleasure a woman. He had secretly bought books in the world of the living and read up on any- _techniques_ that he might acquire but his first time wasn't without difficultly.

But none of that mattered to him.

All that mattered was that she was his wife and at the time he believed that she will be by his side for the rest of their days.

He'd dared to entertained dreamy visions of a son with her kind smile and his courage, a daughter as well just like her with only his last name was all he'd asked for.

Ayame, his grand-aunt, spoke then. The Kuchiki royal blood in her pronounced with her quiet confidence and prime outward appearance.

 _"Byakuya-sama, this counsel has only one responsibility- to be your advisers."_ She paused for a moment, taking the time to look at especially the bleeding Kaito. _"Our goal is to see this line of the main branch family continue with a pure heir as it has been for generations. If Byakuya sama will not take the responsibility then it within the power of the council, as is proper, to select a member from a noble house as a suitable match with the next in line; in this case that would be Rukia-sama."_

Byakuya had unknowingly stopped breathing. Outwardly, everyone saw a stoic facade, as if he would just shrug at this-if shrugging was apart of his personality makeup. Inside? A storm of emotion roiled. Possessiveness and frustration being the strongest ones.

Kaito voice sounded then, the smugness of it irked him to the razor's edge of violence.

 _'he must have used a Kido healing spell to mend the jaw I broke'._ Byakuya reasoned.

Was he provoking Byakuya to kill him on purpose or could he just not help his prejudice?

 _"Since her induction into the Goeti thirteen, Rukia-sama,_ " He said Rukia's name with a thinly veiled sneer, " _has not secured a position of a seated officer. It would be difficult Ayama-sama, to present her to a noble family akin to the power and stature of the Kuchiki clan if her profession is lacking even such a small accomplishment."_ He paused, allowing his words to hang a bit before he said in a tone that Byakuya imagined snakes would sound if they could talk. " _I would be inclined to speak highly of her to my own son if her dexterity improves in her profession."_

Byakuya had only met Kalon Kuchiki a few times and in those times he can't say that the younger man had exactly made it on his short-short list of people on his good graces.

Yes, he is an aristocrat who was continuously trained to play the pretentious self-righteous perfect leader but that didn't mean that he enjoyed being around fake people. Hypocritical though that made him.

If there could be a soul reaper made out of plastic, it would be Kalon Kuchiki.

 _And this bastard wanted to introduced that artifice to Rukia?_

As if she read his thoughts , Ayama said. _"Thank you Kaito, however the final decision will be with Byakuya-sama as the head of the clan to approve Rukia-sama's husband."_

 _Husband? He'd thought_

The word hit him like a boulder. A very, very big boulder.

Feeling like he was going to something else that was uncharacteristic, Byakuya called for the meeting to adjourn with a quick, "I will consider your advise."

Best not to tell them any other colorful words on his tip of his tongue.

 **A.N**

 **Stay tuned for the next one.**

 **Love ya!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Attention! Attention! I'm back and here is another chapter in the exciting 'Keeping up with the Kuchikis' series.**

 **NO, no, no, I don't own bleach although I do make a damn fine Fanfiction of it,**

 **Hope you enjoy Chapter 10 uploading the other chapters soon after this one. :)**

If Rukia had to rate her feelings this morning compared to any other morning she woken up after a battle this one be in the top three, closer to number two even. The number of aches and pains running through her made her feel like there was a hundred knives piercing her body all over. Then she heard music playing her ears.

She shot to her feet in her bed, a action she regretted immediately when all of her muscles protested in a chorus of pain and stiffness knocking her flat on her back.

Damn she felt like she had been hit by a truck the size of a mountain.

It was worst than the time Aizen had impaled her through her chest to take that thing Kisuke had hidden in her soul, and almost as bad as when she came back from Hueco Mundo.

The invasive pool of sunlight forcing it's way through her windows was intruding to her eyes, almost blinding her. Rukia reached to swipe up on the buds over the small button to turn off the ear pieces and welcomed the silence that followed but that was just the beginning.

As soon as the silence pooled into her head, a headache, beating at the rate of a jackhammer started causing her to wince anew because of it and the light and there something else that was beyond strange that started happening as she tried to focus. This crazy feeling was causing a 'what the fuck?' to rise in her throat fast. Her body, even with it's many aches and pains was singing with ripples of reiatsu, as if she had a spike the night before and now, there was a point of which she was just winding down from that high. Then she recalled that she did and groaned because her muscles were not huge fans of the idea and the pain of the fight mixed in with what she could only describe as her 'woke up call', stung with each inhale.

She could have sworn that she felt lust but not inside of her, thankfully, because really who could she actually be with and it didn't cause a scandal? After Ichigo rescued her from the execution, rumors of them being lovers spread like insatiable fire. Servants, nobles and soul reapers alike whispered behind cupped hands but smile and greeted her as her fake noble rank dictated when she was near.

"...heard that Rukia Kuchiki went slumming with that human ryoka that came to rescue her"

"...you couldn't mean? The Ryoka and the little Kuchiki? "

"...heard that she was living together with him in the real world and a relationship formed between them when she gave him her powers. The poor boy would have died out of a broken heart before he allowed her to pay for her crimes."

-"You can't really call it slumming with her. She is from the slums! Kami only knows the number of men has lifted her skirts, a human might have been only a change in type."

Not true! Not True!

- _how can you say that when your lips still remembered the taste of_ _his_. Shirayuki said suddenly in her head and she almost jumped out of her skin which would have earned her the wrath of her stiffen muscles. She was yet to climb out of her four post bed , the damn thing was so high, she would have to ginger her way down with these injuries , to get back in was going to be another pain her ass-literally speaking in this case.

Wait how would Shirayuki be speaking to her and she had the ear pieces turned off and where in the world were these feelings coming from? They were creeping her out.

- _how can you be speaking to me_? she asked her zanpakuto, the ting of surprise was still lingering in her voice from her start a moment before.

An audible tongue cluck answered her and she could also feel Shirayuki's irritation at her question. Rukia might be from the slums of Hanging Dog but her zanpakuto certainly belief that she was born and breed to be Her Most Serene Imperiousness of House Kuchiki.

Why was that?

- _In truth_ ,' Her zanpakuto began, annoyance hovering over every word. - _I am always talking to you, engaging you in conversation and providing warnings of danger , if you only listened_ ... she trail off as if they have had this particular conversation many a times and the outcome was already determined.

Rukia sighed, she could almost see Shirayuki sitting in her inner ice world, a beautiful frozen paradise with a magnificent Ice Castle. But there was no other color there. Just white. Rukia had always wondered if that was the real world for her. _Was that a reflection of my real life?_

Though beauty could be found, it lacked the warmth of color. It lacked true love.

She pushed whatever that was aside. Damn it, what the hell was going on with her today? And yes, yes , yes! Damn that hat and cloak guy to hell. He will have a bloody lip and a few missing teeth when she got her hands on him.

As rage surge through her, irritation was on it's heels because the feeling of lust was somehow more powerful, perhaps there was someone close by. She could feel the hollows hunger and even the break in their rhythm, a somehow more dense blood lust when they where about to strike. Maybe the power of the ear pieces worked when it was on or off?

Or because she had activated it and lost consciousness then left it on for the entire night.

She tried to removed the pieces from her body.

Nothing.

She tried again, her _face_ contorted with the effort. It didn't even move an inch.

- _if my suspicions are correct and they always are_ , Shirayuki started but stopped short.

- _what is it?_ Rukia said, her voice in her own head coming out as loud and cautious.

- _Someone approaches_ . and as if it was an after thought, her zanpakuto informed her; - _oh it would seem that you are experiencing some sort of reaction from sampling all the reiatsu in the Soul Society._

What?

Rukia was sure she didn't hear her own inner being properly. What the hell did she mean?

- _how? What?_

Confusion and pain blurring together as she tried to sit up and get off the monstrosity that is her four post bed.

- _What you're feeling is an overload of reiatsu filtered in by the ear pieces and the controller on her wrist. It's a good thing you didn't take them off or you would have received a blast of reiatsu that would knock you out or seriously injury you and especially me._

- _I was trying to take them off a few_ moments _before!_ Rukia snapped at her. - _Don't you think a little_ , _oh I Don't know , 'I wouldn't do that if I were you' would have been in order!_ Her head pound with the madding mental communication they were having but she was too pissed off to care.

- _I am you. I know you. And you are stubborn than the most mulish mongrel to be found._

- _why you!?_

A knock sounded on the door interrupted the nasty retort that she had in mind to tell her but she figured, being that that it was a telepathy connection between them and all she would just send her a mental flip off and she heard the Tsk that came after.

Yeah message received.

Whoever it was behind her door, thanks to her 'sampling' their spiritual pressure was not even on the radar, so she figured it might be a maid.

 _A maid._

 _A maid?_

She kept turning the word over and over again in her head, feeling like she was missing something big. Why did the presence of a maid in her room suddenly had her feeling nervous . Never did before so why...? The though died with the sighting of her Chappy Bag innocently sitting in the left corner of her room and then she remembered what was inside it. The maid will see it and try to unpack the contents and if she does that-

Rukia jump off the bed, ignoring the pain as best as she could but wincing nonetheless. The knock sounded again and then the maid call just as she reached the bag.

Oh dear Kami! If she didn't answer then the maid might assume that she was still sleeping and try to come in to tidy the room without waking her or try to check on her.

She was regretting letting that damn cat woman drag her into that store and seeing that stupid movie. It was the reason this whole problem started in the first place.

- _incorrect_. Shirayuki chirped sounding happily amused by her plight and Rukia wanted to throttle and break her own zanpakuto in two.

"Oh, just piss off!" Rukia spat aloud, and even a little too loudly because an indignant surprised gasp came from the door followed by scampering feet down the corridor.

Not sure if that was a blessing in disguise or a curse she just sent up to the mounting black cloud over her head, either way Rukia got to work hiding her stash of sexy underwear and as the Goddess of Flash called them, stripper boots and accessories. She hadn't had time to think much about it afterwards but as she was putting them away Rukia had to wonder, ' _who was Yoruichi buying her sexy outfits for?_ '

Rukia was only shopping because she felt like it, could it be that the was the same reason for her tall beautiful shopping partner?

A name surface in her head but she mentally shook it away.

With the maid gone, Rukia had sometime before anyone came to check up on her again although she didn't plan to be there when they came back. Injured or not, she still had her duties to perform. If she acted fast she could make it out of there before the maid got to the head of duties or worst.

 _Niisama._

* * *

Ichigo Kurosake got a strange feeling in his gut that made him nervous and excited at the same time. He was on his way to destroy a herd of Hollows who's spiritual pressure he sensed during his fifth period. His mind deflected to Rukia even as the hollows came into view, he couldn't help thinking about her. He wouldn't help himself if he could. The first hollow spotted him and shrieked.

"Yeah, yeah. roar, roar to you too!" He said more annoyed that anything else that he will have to deal these bastards instead of doing what he really wanted to do these days. He swung his massive sword and black eyes went sightless before evaporating in a burst of heat. Ichigo slash and hack until there was nothing more than silence and the thick wetness and rustic smell of his blood running down the side of his face from where a hollow got to him again because of his day dreaming. The wind rustle the leaves as it passed by, combing through his spiky hair. He found a tree with a broad truck to rest his back on and started to dream again about the night when he kissed Rukia. Oh Dear Kami he was going crazy just thinking about it but he didn't give a damn because though it was brief, the contact left an imprint on his lips, the taste of cool ice and chocolate never leaving his tongue, the feel of her body against his made his shaft harden and he flushed when he remembered the feel of her rounded small breasts through her night clothing pressed up against his stomach. At the time, he warred with his body to only touch her shoulders but his fingered flexed now, a hunger in their empty gasp; desire in his blood for her. He had never been with a woman, evidence by his shyness when he kissed Rukia but if he were to be with someone, it would be her. He knew that they were worlds apart and she was royalty for Godsakes; her brother was a son of bitch just for breathing but somehow, if there was someway;

"I want to be with Rukia. Damn it I feel like I'm in love-I'm in love with her." He said to the quiet of the forest he found himself in. He should get back to school and remove Kon from his body but Rukia was on his mind there too. She's always there and he would not let her go because he knew that she would be his.

 **A/N**

 **And so Ichigo Kurosake...Rukia...Byakuya...and maybe Renji?**

 **You have to stay tune for the next one.**

 **Thanks to all my reviewers...jeez you guys are awesome! and you multiply fast. But I couldnt have uploaded this chapter or the rest to follow without your encouraging words.** **Will be uploading the next juicy one quickly...I promise.**

 **XOXO and love your life. It's yours after all.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I think someone really shook the lemon tree on this chapter, but you know how these lemons are, only a few fell off ;)**

 **Must be waiting on some reviews to bring home the motherload.**

 **As always-disclaimer- I own only this fanfiction- That Kubo guy got the jump on me about bleach plus he could draw and all that.**

 **XOXO and enjoy the show.**

Laced with fatigue both mentally and physically from the day's activities and the nights, he made it back to his sleep chambers hoping to get rest but he should have known that his life was never that simple. He was able to change out of his uniform and into his night attire. The summer night was too hot for the shirt so he removed it. As sleep come and perform it's duty he let it, determined to finish his paper work the first thing in the morning then tend to Rukia himself. A servant already had duties to look after her but he will dismiss them as soon as he completed his work. Sleep came and left and soon he knew nothing more until a dream came into his subconsciousness.

Byakuya knew that this was a dream on some level and he knew that he had no control over anything around him right now but what in the name of all the Kamis was going on and why was he chain to his bed? His bedchambers had a smokey glow to it, the bathroom firefly lights were on and the rest of the room awash in it's faint glow. He struggled against his restraints, neck and head craning up to see his progress when he suddenly stopped, brows furrowing.

"What in the name of?"

The restraints that held him were the same as the ones he found in Rukia's bag, silk cheetah fur color handcuffs abounded his wrists. Gingerly he used one long finger to caress the feel of his bonds, when movement out of the corner of his eye stole his attention completely.

Sitting on the foot of his bed in the pink short night dress was...Hisanna?

 _No, it can't be._ He thought since instead of shy eyes and uncertainty, passion and burning desire stare back at him from magenta eyes and for a moment they just stared at each other.

"Rukia." Byakuya broke the tense silence and he fisted his restraints, not happy with being vulnerable. "What is the meaning of this?" He got out because the firefly vines suddenly shone more brightly and then his eyes widen when he notice that there was nothing underneath her thin night dress. The vale of the garment teasing him and heating his blood. His voice abandon him when he spied her rounded small perky breasts with their stiffen peaks, her flat belly and there in the center of her being was...

He averted his gaze from the sight and had to clear his throat to recover his senses and his voice.

"Rukia this is-is not appropriate." He stuttered. He never stutters. "Release me now and I will be lenient on your punishment."

The Rukia of his dreams said nothing and when he glared back on her , his throat went dry all over again because she was on her hands and knees slowly making her way to him. With every motion, her breasts, like succulent fruit in the breeze, swayed so invitingly and his cock hardened at the sight of them, his fingers itched to knead and pinch them until she was crying out his name on her lips in broken prayers over and over again, begging him to do what he wanted to her.

Byakuya groaned low in his throat despite himself. He was still wearing his night attire, the shirt off. Satin and silk were comfortable to sleep in but they were a miserable defense against his newest problem that bulged up and out of the waist band of his hakama.

A little 'oh' sounded from dream Rukia and by now she was at his knees, her eyes riveted to his shaft and the broad head of his member glistening at the slit.

"Byakuya." she purred his name, her eyes were half lidded with desire and he got impossibly harder under her heated gaze. The desire that he saw there made his sack heavy and could he swear up and down on the name of every Kami that if she touch him anywhere, he was going to come so hard. Even if he had to deal with the shame of the act later, he didnt care right now.

She touched him.

Not directly on his flesh but instead on his satin covered legs, feeling him through the fabric and he wanted to curse because it was maddening even as he twisted and panted as lust burned through him like molten lava.

"Byakuya." She said again in that siren's voice and desire for her burn through him , licking at his need and searing him like a brand

"Stop that." He snapped at her, his chest heaving and sweat forming on his upper lip and sheening his torso. "Stop calling my name like that." he protested though he was panting and swallowing because she was right. How he longed to hear her lips call him like this. Not Byakuya sama, niisama or anything else. Kami how he had yearn to hear that even though he had resisted the thought so many times, he was only lying to himself and now he could no longer. Even though it's just a dream.

"This is what you want me to call you when we are not in public." She said matter-of-factly, little fingers trailing slowly, agonizingly slowly over his thigh, the destination clear. He sucked in a breath when he felt her cupped him between his legs in her small hands through the satin of his hakama, gently massaging them there. The satin material only heightening the intensity of the act and when he couldn't take it anymore he groaned and cry out but there were no words, words were useless to describe the pleasure of what she was doing to him

"Rukia! A-A Ah-A!"

She wasnt even touching his flesh yet and what if she does? He shuddered at the thought of shaming himself, the pleasure of her touches blurring his senses together making it hard to tell what he was feeling. Soon the fear of early ejaculation disappeared, drown out by his need for more and release, it has been so long since...

Her hand glided over his swollen shaft then her fingers wrap around him. He was too thick and broad for her small fingers to meet but as she began to pump him in a tight fist, slow at first then faster, it didn't matter and Byakuya was lost.

"Ah Kami-sama!" he whispering hoarsely, helplessly bucking his hip into her grasp, needing to be taken over the edge so badly he was nearly mindless with it. The pleasure bordered on pain as the pressure built and he felt his eyes roll back in his head on the edge of oblivion then she stopped and the dream ended.

"No!" He cried out as he woke up panting, his hand on his cock, pumping himself hard and fast. The sensation of pleasure and surprise registered with him as he realize what he was doing but his need for release was more insistent, almost frenzied and he had a feeling that if he were to stop now, he would do something uncharacteristic and rash.

Closing his eyes as he fucked his fist, he imaged that it was Rukia's hand on him, giving him this sweet pleasure. Byakuya turned his head into the pillow to muffle his cries and Rukia's name was on his lips as he came. On and on it went as waves of pleasure wash over him and bursts after violent bursts of his spent hit the sheets, his torso and his chest. His other hand fisted the bedding as he continued to pump until there was no more of himself to give up to his feverish dream-fantasy. The euphoric bliss from his release kept the guilt away for the moment. Kami in heaven only knew his faults and the dark ways he tried to hide from the rest of the world

"My Lord Kuchiki-Sama,"

The voice and the intrusion started him causing him to shot to his feet. Guilt rushed to him in an instant and the shame of his acts assaulted in the same breath. He would never be able to look at his sister without thinking about what he had just done. He looked at his state and groan in misery.

He was sorry sight.

His bed sheets were wrinkled and torn from clawing at them in the wake of his climax. He was awash with sweat and the scent of his seed. His hands and upper body sticky and covered with his release.

A knock on the door reminded him that he had not yet answered and in truth he didn't want to answer because the moment he did he would have to give him permission to enter his chambers and if he didnt then it might arise suspicions.

His door didn't have just anyone behind it as he could see from the shadow underneath it, there seemed to be two people. From the voice of one, he knew him to be his grandfather, from the spiritual pressure of the other, the bastard was trying to keep it low and slithering as he was, he could tell that it was Kaito. Byakuya had many things to do this day, a list longer than his arm and that was his life on a normal day. One of those things included his meeting with Kaito at his mansion in the High Spears Mountains this afternoon, so what the hell was he doing here and why was his grandfather here and now when he was...well.. like this. Moving quickly and soundless, Byakuya went to the cleansing room to wash off himself and just as quickly remove the sheets from the bed. The morning was still early and cleansing was expected. Though the walls were a foot thick, it didn't keep out spiritual pressure. He tried to remain calm taking deep breaths.

Byakuya looked at his bed as he got ready to greet his unexpected and at the moment unwelcome guests. Unbidden a fantasy form in his head and he could imagine Rukia laying in the center . Twice the size of a real world King size and rounded instead of rectangular, his custom size bed only took up a quarter of his chambers because the space was too large to be considered a room.

 _She would be lost in it,_ he thought and a ghost of a smile tug at his lips before he wiped it off and felt shamed anew.

He had the bed made as comfortable as it was made to be but there was still the emptiness and there was no warmth in it, even with the thickest and most expensive quilts and when restlessness overtook him many a times so he would be in the garden trying to find solace, abandoning the luxury he had at his finger tips.

The top sheet from the bed was spilled on the black marble, white on black and he looked at it with contempt seeing the stain of his shame. Taking the hilt of his sword in his grip, he aimed it at the target.

"scatter." Byakuya commanded his zanpakuto. When he was done with the sheet , it looked like drama personified with tiny ribbons and thread being the only evidences that there was a top sheet to begin with.

He dawned his mask, frown and all his attire was place; the mark of his station in his hair and around his neck. By the time he open the door his grandfather was giving him one of his questioning raised eyebrow but he ignored it and instead greeted both men respectfully and closing the door in the same breath..

"My apologies for having come to your chambers so early this morn." Ginrei said in his scratchy voice sounding like he was the one being inconvenienced.

Byakuya closed his eyes , siting on his legs in the parlor of the manor. If he were a betting man, he could guess why they were bothering him and he didn't like it.

He exhaled a breath, this time for them to see how tired he was of intrigue.

"We needed to speak with you about last night's events involving Rukia Sama." Kaito cut in hastily before could Ginrei continue, sounding excited, the contempt gone from his voice as he spoke about Rukia with a tone akin to praise.

Byakuya felt a tinge of disgust mixed in with annoyance surging within him.

For his part, there was his episode this morning that seemed tenacious because he was still semi-hard, his dream, wet as it had been, did little to cool the fire in his blood and just hearing her name; even from the lips of a snake, made it all the more difficult to control his lust. Fate had seen it poetic to bless him with endowment instead of subtly making it next to impossible to hide an embarrassing ejection, though if he was careful, his uniform and captain attire should help him somewhat. He resisted the need to squirm in an effort to adjust himself.

His annoyance continued since the snake was still talking and he wanted to check up on Rukia, hopefully she was still resting; her injuries was hopeful a deterrent to her body clock that demanded that she got up for her duties.

He pushed the thought aside since a maid would surely be thereby now if there was any problems that she needed assistance with and sway her from doing something rash.

"...Who could have predicted that Rukia sama had such potential within herself." the snake prune was saying, "To defeat sure formidable foes! Surely My Lord Kuchiki Sama has hid some secrets from the members of the counsel, being her brother."

Byakuya finally opened his eyes to look at the man just as his fists clench shut at his sides. Kaito knew the relationship that he and Rukia had, up until recently there was barely any, two strangers in one household. That was Byakuya's fault and he was kicking himself for it but still...

 _To provoke my ire now._ He thought dangerously.

To declare that he didnt realize that Rukia's prowess with the sword was growing would make him look like a fool before a member of the council and his predecessor . To lie and for them to question him about it and then test Rukia on the same topic-(and he could bet his title) that they would when he wasnt around her, would erupt into a scandal and cause him to lose face and control over the members of the clan.

"My grandson is well aware of the potential of his dear sister," Ginrei said coolly but his dim grey eyes were locked on Byakuya, taking in more than what was on the surface and only he seem to recognize the razor's edge that had appeared . Kaito was oblivious. "It is rude to assume that he is unaware of the happenings in his own household.

Stuttering Kaito began an apology but Byakuya cut him off.

"I appreciate your visit," he said rising to his feet. "But I have matters of importance to attend to."

"Would one of those matters be Rukia-sama wellbeing?" the snake asked and Byakuya wanted to strangle him. Did he dare to imply that Byakuya needed a remainder of such an important subject? That anything else was more important that him seeing to Rukia's health and welfare!?

He would have been by her side all through last night if it wasn't considered inappropriate for him to be with her alone through out the night. It was his intent to go to her(dream or not) the first thing this morning to ease the worry on his mind if they - no; from the look on his grandfather's face and his mannerisms, he could see that Kaito was the one that wanted to come here.

Byakuya turned to him then, silky menace barely contained under his mask but his mistake was keeping his eyes open because whatever the council member saw in them , he saw fear in the man's eyes and instead of the brazzeness he was used to from Kaito, the man recoiled, his face losing all traces of color. Irritation, no. It was the total sum of everything that has happened during that month accumulated in that one death stare that brought the room to silence.

A few heart beats passed before Ginrei once again broke the silence, "We would all like to see how a member of our family fairs, isnt that right Councilor Kaito? "

"Of-Of course." he stuttered and then inclined his head in a deep and stately bow to the younger Kuchiki. "Please pardon my hasty words, My Lord Kuchiki, I meant no disrespect towards you."

Byakuya whirled out of the room saying nothing and not caring if they followed him or not. He wanted to see Rukia. Needed to see her.

He almost knocked over the maid kneeling with head bowed at the door.

"My Lord Kuchiki sama," Her voice was tremulous and a sickening feeling came over him when he realized that she was the maid he had assigned to look after Rukia the night before.

"Speak quickly," Byakuya snapped in a low whisper but the maid heard him and soon he could see that all of her was shaking.

"It's Rukia -Sama, my Lord. She..."

Byakuya didn't stand to hear a word more before he was flash-stepping towards Rukia.

 _Oh Kami-sama, please._ The thought had him sweating with fear and worry. He was vaguly aware of Kaito calling after him and he was sure that they were following him but none of that mattered

There was nothing more in his head at the moment than images of her not breathing after succumbing to her injuries. Was it the poison from that hollow? Even as he forced himself to calm down, they still haunted him until he arrived at her room. Fear threw courtesy and manners out the window as he burst through the door, hoping that it was not as he feared. Hoping that she was alright. Her injures were great but not grave.

All thought left and he came up short as bile rose up in his throat . Something akin to rage filled him so quickly he didn't think about his action. He didn't even know when he collared the bastard but his fist were wringing his shihakusho so tightly that his toes were pointing downwards and Senbonzakura's blade was pressed up against the son of a bitch's throat by the time his senses kicked back in a moment later.

"Why are you in Rukia's room, Kalon Kuchiki!?

 **A/N**

 **Well that was surely interesting. What will happen next? What is Kalon and Kaito really after?**

 **Keep your comments and reviews coming. Always Love to hear from you guys.**

 **Stay beautiful, the next uploads are coming up shortly.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello Lovelies,**

 **I hope your summer was full of fun and great and exciting things happened to you. If that didnt happen then that's ok too. Chapter 12 is here so enjoy and leave me something like a review or a comment or a nice like. Love all of those.**

 **Oh yeah**

 **That Kubo guy owns this anime and the manga, I am just a leech of the imaginative sort. I own nothing.**

 **X.o.X**

"I would be more than happy to explain what I am doing in Rukia-sama's room if you would be so kind as to release me and move the point of your sword from my throat." Kalon Kuchiki said indignantly.

 _The fool-_ Ginrei thought halfheartedly pitying Kalon as he notice with dread that Byakuya didn't move an inch and if anything, he press the blade of Senbonzakura a little more into the column of the man's white neck.

"Lord Kuchiki Sama!" Ginrei said, the warning came out as an order since the look in Byakuya's eyes told him that he wasn't thinking logically about what he would do next. Ginrei stormy grey eyes looked at Kaito, who was studiously looking away at the display before them. When the Councilor had come to his gardens this morn, he had been beaming with the news of what happened last night as reports came fluttering in about Rukia victory over those class tens. Ginrei had already heard the reports himself almost the same time the events were happening, play by play and as impressed as he was and prideful for the Kuchiki clan, his years as a Captain of the Goeti Thirteen had him wondering what could have spiked this sudden change in his adopted granddaughter's sword dexterity.

Ginrei had faced Class Ten hollows before and had barely manage to fight them off and they were not as numerous as what Rukia had faced last night. Ever since the report came to him questions bubbled in his mind with increasing frequency.

-"how had she managed to defeat all of them?"

-"when did Rukia get so powerful, had I been so blind as to not notice her process with the sword? did Byakuya know? "

According to his sources, the current Captain of squad six, seemed as awe-struck as any who were there on the scene as evidence of his slightly wide eye expression and the almost barely perceptible hint of surprise and worry in his reiatsu.

The changes in his grandson had been mounting for years now and Ginrei doubted that Byakuya would want anyone to know what he was feeling. He knew him better than anyone could and since that conspiracy by Aizen to execute Rukia, he had slowly notice these blossoming differences from his grandson towards his adopted granddaughter that has concluded in his mind without a doubt that Byakuya is in love with Rukia.

He might deny it. His grandson can be mulishly stubborn but Ginrei has seen the way he tried not to stare at Rukia, the way his hands clench and unclench when that Ryoka boy is around and even some male members of the Goeti thirteen. His red-headed lietenant in particular.

And this morning?

Shock rolled through him anew when he recalled the _kind_ of reiatsu coming from his bedroom chambers. Kaito no doubt felt it too but wisely kept his mouth shut. No amount of spiritual pressure suppression could douse that hungering need and if Byakuya didn't 'take care of his needs' he might lose his control, a scandal like nothing else the Kuchiki family had ever been through could erupt.

His grandson at the center of a scandal!

Ginrei was sure a new grey hair just popped up just at the thought. Years and years of personality grooming, perfecting his image as the head of the clan- gone in one night of indiscretions at a pleasure house or worst due to the frenzied need that come along when a soul reaper sexual wants are diverted for too long.

If he had just listened to him before and married Rukia...

Ginrei suppressed the need to groan aloud in frustration.

Now there was no other way to ensure the survival of the clan but to do this.

* * *

Byakuya narrowed his eyes at the man still in his grip but all he could see was a reddish haze coming over his eyes, his anger boiling like water in a pot. He barely heard Ginrei's voice warning him to stop.

- _kill him. W_ hispered his zanpakuto in the dark recesses of his mind and unfortunately he was so anger at the moment he was more than tempted to do just that. Questions like daggers cut through the thin strings of his self control.

 _why can't I sense Rukia? Did this **insect** have something to do with that? the morning is still early, had he walked in on her while she was indecently attired!?_

"I have no desire to hear you're lies!" Byakuya said, his usual baritone (which was usually dangerous and threatening) became impossibly more so. He feels irriation hot like a brand on his neck at the audacity of Kaito and his son. Both of them were to blame and whatever they were planing, he had a feeling he wasn't going to like it.

"Do not make me repeat myself." Byakuya steel gray eyes were piercing Kalon's and the man was shuddering, all trace of that arrogance he had displayed before vanishing.

"I merely came," Kalon said rapidly because there is nothing like the point of a sword at your neck and the wrath of one of the most dangerous men in the soul society holding that sword to make you sing like a canary. "To ensure that my future bride was alright!"

"Your...what!?" It was a reaction rather than a question but Byakuya said it through gritted teeth so tight that his thin lips barely moved.

Kalon visibly swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing with the action. "I-", he had clear his throat to pry the words out. "I would have come directly to you, Lord Kuchiki-Sama months before, however there had been matters regarding my family that demanded my attentions."

Kalon's feet were barely touching the ground; Byakuya's arm holding his sword was bent at the elbow in an elegant L, it would only take a flick of his wrist to cut the tongue from his throat.

 _A snake just like his father._ Byakuya thought with a hatred so vehement he surprised himself and for a second the reddish haze clouding his eyes cleared. Logic cooling his rage, flowed within him and with the last thread of his control he released the now shaking Kalon Kuchiki.

He realized with an internal curse that he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him and that he would need to explain his actions some time later. Responsibility can be a plight sometimes. If he were a lesser man of lower status, then he could just shrug it off, blame it on the stress of his own burdens. Not so for the head of the Kuchiki clan, not when everyone looked to him as an example.

Byakuya wanted to disappear.

His feelings regarding anything to do with Rukia made him groundless, irrational in his actions and thoughts and to his horror, they were growing stronger possiblily to the point where he couldnt control them anymore.

 _No, I cannot allow that to happen._ He chided himself internally. There must be a way to handle this.

From his sinful dream to the shame he sliced to ribbons and now this display of utter lack of control to the point of violence. It was mindless.

Byakuya let out a inaudible sigh.

Actions to take:

He could excuse himself using his duties as a scapegoat and deal with all of this later when he had collected all his thoughts.

He could go back to the old days when he avoid Rukia at least until he figure out a way to fix this... to null these pesky feelings.

Instead he found himself saying;

"Your arrogance almost cost you your life." Byakuya said his voice like iron. "Rukia is recovering from her injures, she is NOT your anything for you to presume to go near her during such a vulnerable time. And if _that_ was you're attempt at asking me for Rukia's hand then it is irrevocably and unequivocally denied."

The octave in his tone was rising again, he realized but this anger and something akin to frighteningly to jealousy had crept into him banishing his cool logical facade once more, cracking the porcelin mask so easily that he's wore as his shield even when dealing with the vilest enemies.

So much for dealing with matters later.

He heard someone let out a wincing sound; air hissing between teeth.

"I am afraid that's no longer your decision to make, Lord Kuchiki." Kaito said coolie

By this time Senbonzakura was back in it's sheath, it's services no longer required for the moment but that was relative, wasnt it?

Byakuya shot his grandfather a questioning look and Ginrei nodded solemnly.

"It's true." Ginrei said, his shoulders back, chin jutted like a man ready to make a hard decision with as much dignity as he could muster. "The kuchiki clan has had a long and proud history with the heir coming from the main branch family for generations." Ginrei closed his eyes but his lips continued to speak words that cut through Byakuya like a sword. "We are living in a society that can claim a life as easily as it is to draw breath. You are a Captain of the Goeti thirteen Court Guard Squad and with the recent turn of events; notably Rukia-sama's exponential growth in mastering the sword, there is bound to be an alarming interest in her from Head Captain Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. She will be in the middle of the fray or on the front lines as most skilled officers are in times of battle. She will not be an unseated officer for much longer and you are still a prisoner of the past and will not remarry anyone based on our council then we have no choice but to remove the decision from your hands and offer Rukia joining to prospective males of the noble families."

"Rukia is not a-." He just prevented himself from saying a 'fucking broodmare' but thankfully someone intervened and cut him off, for once he was glad for the reprieve.

"This council feels that there are no other alternatives." Said Katio. "We cannot afford to lose both our heirs to the savageness of battle."

Plan "Scapegoat" is really looking like a bingo idea right now. He could feel the pinpricks of a migraine coming on coupled with the spike of rages he had back to back and the frustration of this little loop hole that the council had found to use against him even after they were the ones that denied Rukia as a part of the Kuchiki clan, up until recently were still spiting poison at her feet with their harsh words.

Byakuya would need to retreat for now if he is going to find a way out of this.

"I believe that it would only be fair that this information is presented to Rukia in a meeting so that she can have an understanding of what the council has decided instead of getting unscheduled visits from potential suitors."

Byakuya shot Kalon a bitter look but out of the corner of his eye he notice that his grandfather's eyes narrowed, salt and pepper brows drawing into a furrow. He could almost see the wheels going around in his head , the thoughts bubbling up and a little alarm went off inside him.

Though he didn't know why.

* * *

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	13. Chapter 13

**Attention! Attention! I'm back and here is another chapter in the exciting 'Keeping up with the Kuchikis' series.**

 **NO, no, no, I don't own bleach although I do make a damn fine Fanfiction of it,**

 **Hope you enjoy Chapter 10 uploading the other chapters soon after this one. :)**

* * *

Escape to Squad Thirteen was not a smart idea and silence is a treasure as Rukia Kuchiki discovered.

It is one thing to perform the flash step when you're in pique physical condition,it is quiet another to do it when your just coming off a reiatsu spike and near death injures were still singing merrily in your body. Every muscle hurts with each step she took.

You see, the flash step technique demands speed and agility and those who have mastered it only have to use one to five steps to cover miles under their feet. Rukia was not a master, unfortunately. Not even close. It took her twelve steps to get from her home to the barracks which was quiet a far distance away from the Kuchiki Manor. Each one of those were brutal with pain stinging up her body and heat coming from the claw marks that must be in the reddened itchy state of regeneration because boy did she know what a dog feels like with flees in his fur only she couldn't even touch the wound without massive pain biting back at her. Sweet Kami this morning was the terrible. It couldn't get worst.

Arriving at the barracks, her Zanpakuto started to chat with her again.

- _must you walk with hunch shoulders?_ Shirayuki admonished. - _You represent a high class family of worth, you need to present yourself according to your standing less others might feel that they are within your station._

Rukia heard her huff when she continue to ignore her. It was like she had a round the clock Kuchiki elder on her back snapping at her as soon as she make the mistake of being a normal soul reaper.

On and on the chastising went from the moment she left the manor and she had a feeling that as long as she had her super hearing abilities, this would never end.

Rukia's list of things to do as soon as she was a little stronger:

1\. Go to the living world and beat the crap out of Kisuke Urahara for this

2\. Make him remove these infernal things from her ears and her wrist

 **More things to add to it later.**

Her list was short but satisfying to think about as she endured this.

She would have kicked herself because here she was in another situation caused by that man. Why did she ever thought that she should trust him again and not only that, why her?

Was this some sort of sick game that he played with her? Wasn't the 'putting the deadly orb of unknown doom inside her soul' enough for him? Why was he trying to hurt her again for whatever this experiment of his was?

A dull ache throb in her chest just at the same spot Aizen had impaled her to remove the Hōgyoku from her soul as if it was dragged up from the Pandora Box deep inside her where all her darkest nightmares resided.

 _But then again,_ She thought still incensed. _what would have happened to me if i wasn't have these things?_

Last night was nothing short of amazing what she pulled off; those class tens were no joke and she would have been a dead woman without Shirayuki's instructions and the ability to read the pattern of the hollows' beat.

- _And your um...urges have not surfaced once , so in a sense..._ Shirayuki trailed off but Rukia knew what she was getting at, that doesnt mean anything to her right now. She was still mad at him and at herself.

Speaking of instructions, she took out the slip of paper that Kisuke had placed in the side compartment of her bag. It would be a good thing to know how to use buds and the watch to her advantage, maybe there was something in there she could use to take them off. Some sort of code perhaps that came be dialed in the watch face.

She put the paper back in her pocket but she was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize that she was no longer alone.

"Rukia Kuchiki" Someone called out to her.

By this time she had just passed the Ugendō or Rain Dried Quarters reserved for the Captain to rest and recover from bouts of his illness and was in the pastures closer to training grounds at the back. The last person she expected to see here was Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

What the hell was the Captain of squad twelve doing here and more importantly why in the name of all the Kamis was this monster looking at her as if she were a bug he had never seen before?

"Captain Kurotsuchi." Rukia greeted respectfully trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. To the best of her knowledge, the creepy Captain with the crazy hair-do has never been seen near the grounds of the 13th Division let alone wondering about. Nemu was with him, a member of the Soul Society Women Association, someone that she saw often at meetings but Rukia didn't feel any less like she shouldn't be running for the hills.

He might be here to see the Captain. She hoped but her Reiatsu Gauge Meter said she was only kidding herself.

The way he looked at her as if she was a new specie of bug he was contemplating whether to study or squish.

Mayuri moved a step closer to her and she subconsciously stepped back.

 _What the hell does he want with me?_ Rukia's panic thoughts made her take another involuntary step back.

"I suppose," Mayuri said casually as if he couldn't see the fear in her eyes, maybe he got some sort of sick thrill from having a female cowering before him. The bastard. Alone with him is a very bad idea.

"Congratulations are in order for your victory over those class tens. I found it fascinating from the reports that fluttered in that an unseated officer had been the one to defeat such a foe. It's really quiet... extraordinary." he grinned yellowed teeth at her, his eyes lit up with the purest pleasure.

It is never a good thing when the Captain of Squad twelve looks at you for too long much more have a conversation with you.

- _This creature is not to be trusted Rukia_. _End this farce of a conversation now_. Shirayuki spat the words in her mind like they were poison.

"I thank you for taking the time out to congratulate me, Captain Kurotsuchi but I am late for my duties as it were and I wouldn't-"

"What interesting contraptions you wear, Rukia. Kuchiki? The captain said, his voice clipped and low like a shark snapping it's jaws on air, her blood ran a few degrees colder when he said her name. "They seem to be from the world of the living, funny that." He paused for a moment, his eyes never leaving her. "Since the only way for a spiritual being to have any possessions from the world of the living is if they are in the world of the living and wearing a GIGAI. You are not in the capacity of neither of those scenarios, so what are those things you wear, Rukia. Kuchiki?"

What will he do to her?

The question of who he was looking for was out the window and so Rukia only focused on the realistic side of this situation; optimism be damned.

Option 1:

Tell the madman what they are and try to persuade him to not experiment on her to remove them from her person.

It's possible but then there is the possibility of having to tell him why she was wearing defective feeling suppressors in the first place and everyone in the soul society knows what feeling suppressors are supposed to do.

Option 2:

Out run him.

Clearly hopeless.

Option 3?

"Is there a law against wearing things from the human world?" Rukia asked brazenly. Her shoulder were back, chin jutted with stubborn pride. Kuchiki Pride. Her attitude imitating the arrogance and regalia of a Sode no Shirayuki or a Byakuya Kuchiki. Her voice clear, low, aristocratic.

The Captain's eyes widen for a moment as he watched this transformation as the fear melted from the small woman before him into something else.

"Don't get carried away!" The captain's thin line of patience snapped. "I am the one asking the questions here." his voice was hissing.

Rukia managed check her flinch at that tone that cracked like a whip, "You are requesting information informally, Captain." Rukia replied coldly, "And I am choosing to have this conversation with you as you are holding me up from my duties with irrelevant things that are no threat to the soul society or it's laws."

Own it. Own it. She coached herself as she pretended for a moment that she was really of noble birth and blood. That she wasn't the street rat everyone knew her to be and she didn't have a past as ugly as the word itself.

"Irrelevant?" The Captain asked, there was that jaw snapping tone again and Rukia wondered if she had taken her little act a little too far.

"Are saying that I have taken the time out of my busy schedule to investigate this," He gestured to Rukia with flick of his long finger nail. "And you have the gall to withhold information that is rightfully mine?" Her cloak of arrogance fled when he smiled at her again and goosebumps ran up her arms as fear as cold as the ice her Zanpakuto made, ran down her spine.

He took one step toward her, a flash step and suddenly she looking up at blue hair and yellowed teeth. If she had to fight him, then so be it.

"You are **not** my Captain." She growled out the words, hand reaching for the hilt of her zanpakuto. One last show of bravery, her spirit refused the fear she felt, Shirayuki resented it, but she was out matched and it couldnt be helped.

"I don't have to be to get what I want from _you_ ," He threaten and Rukia knew that she wouldn't be getting out of this without a fight, she might not get out of it at all.

A flare of reiatsu paused all three of them, well Rukia and Mayuri since Nemu had not moved a muscle this whole time.

"If I'd known that the Captain of Squad Twelve would be visiting, I would have made a fresh batch of tea."

Rukia whirled around to find her Captain, his kind smile in place but his eyes, those lovely brown pools that held so much care and kindness now turned a serious deadliness that she had never seen before as he leveled his glare on the crazy man with the blue hair.

"Is there a reason for your unexpected visit to my barracks?"

For a long moment no one spoke or moved until the captain of squad twelve turned with a huff and started back to the entrance cursing Nemu,

"Come!" he snapped at the silent girl. "You useless, good for nothing..." The angry rants got smaller and smaller as they moved out of sight.

A comforting hand touched her shoulder but she didn't look up at her Captain. All her strength was busy elsewhere, trying to keep her for falling over and breathing evenly.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded though she didn't know if that was true or not. She was about to engage in a fight with one of the Captains of the Goes thirteen. First those class tens, now this? She was scared to think about what could happen next.

"Oh Rukia-san," Ukitake said gently, the concern on his face as clear as words in a book. Gone was fierce look he gave the fleeing Mayuri and all that remained was the undeniable care he showed for those under his banner and just people in general. "You should be at home in bed resting from that fight that you had last night. Your injures." His dark eyebrows furrowing like a father scolding his child, they were the last identification of his raven black hair. And what's more she could feel it, cool and soothing spiritual energy.

Rukia wondered if he could see what she couldn't say, because there was no way that she could tell him that she couldn't stay at home, not when all she felt was hostility. No she could not afford another scandal if ears were listening; and they were always listening.

* * *

Being noble wasn't easy and coming from a low class noble house he could understand and he knows that no matter how much she trusts him, there were just somethings that she could let pass her lips.

He signed and shook his head then smiled warmly.

"Well if you're going to be insistent about being up and about when you should be in bed resting, then you will have to do it here." Ukitake said gesturing to his quarters.

Rukia eyebrows furrowed and when the full force of what he was saying came to her frizzled brain, she started to speak.

"I-I-Captain I don't think, I mean I am grateful-"

This was the private quarters of the Captain, Others might questioned as to why a female Shinigami is allowed there alone with an unmarried man, even one as kind and gentle as Ukitake.

"Good lets go then." He cut her of pushing her to the

Its not like him to be pushy but with the buzz about the barracks and the Seireitei in general, it wouldn't be good to have her out right now and from the looks of her…?

As they enter into the Rain Dried grounds quarters, the first thing Rukia saw was a low table with four large stacks of papers effectively covering the medium size table.

Seeing that she was staring at table Ukitake gave her a sheepish look.

"Reports on the class tens." he explained.

"That many.' She breath.

"It shouldn't be such a shock,Rukia-San." Ukitake crossed to the opposite side of the low table and sat cross legged then he gestured for her to do the same. He watched as she slowly complied and judged that it must have been painful for her to even walk much more sit and move about.

 _A_ _nd she was ready to engage in combat with Mayuri?_ He thought a little upset with her.

When Rukia sat he asked politely,

"May I offer you some tea?"

"Thank you." Rukia said. She was still a little nervous but as the moments pass by he could tell that she was starting to relax little better.

Ukitake went to prepare some tea. It was surprising to other that for a man at his level to do by himself; as a captain and a noble as well he could have someone employed to do this for him. The third seats would kill each other in order to have first rights.

"You're going to ask me to tell you what happened last night aren't you?" Rukia said quietly after a few moments of silence.

A smile fell upon him but he didn't say anything until he poured a cup for both of them.

"Like the Soul Society's resident scientist, my curiosity is also piqued but unlike Captain Kurotsuchi, I am concerned and in awe, so…" He looked at her with one dark eyebrow pushed up and placing the stacks on the floor beside the table. "..let's talk."

"I don't know what to tell you Sir," Rukia said shaking her head, there was a pause then she sipped the warm liquid. "It's a long story."

She was still hesitating but he will have to give an account of that happened with his underling and since this morning with the reports, he had been at a lost as to what to write to the Head Captain and the Captain of squad two who has now turned her eyes upon his subordinate.

"Rukia," he started in a gentler voice than his usual, " I will not be the only one you will need to tell this story to and honestly I am surprised that the Head Captain has not summoned you to his barracks with that performance that you did with the class tens. Perhaps he still thinks that your at home resting-"

"The Head Captain?!" Rukia jumped out of her feet, bumping the table and sending the tea cups into wobbling from the jolt, They were barely able to keep their contents and would have lost them if Ukitake didn't reach out to grab them before an accident occurred. When he looked up at the girl, her midnight blue eyes were wide with shock. Maybe he will tell her about Soi Fon later. He didn't miss the wince that followed immediately after she leapt to her feet.

"Y-yes." He said bashfully, "Well it's a little known fact between us captains that when a subordinate starts to show process in their swordsmanship we give recommendations as to who will be at each sections of a battle. This is how we promote within our ranks as well. But the Head Captain is kept abreast with the events and the skills of each soul reaper."

"Promote?" The shock from earlier had turned into something like excitement in her voice as she said that and Ukitake wished that he was telling her that she would be promoted to a seated officer but there was one problem with that and _he_ would a force to be reckoned with. Even so, he still couldn't be sure if this change in Rukia was permanent or just a spike. Though there has never been something like a spike of soul reaper prowess in soul society history. Ukitake's shroud eyes landed the ear pieces and the contraption on her wrist. He had seen them for the moment saw her this morning as he wasn't present for the fight with the class tens due to his illness but there were mentions of the strange contraptions she was wearing.

Rukia's eyes followed where his were looking.

"May I?" He held out his hand to take hers.

Tentatively Rukia extended her hand out slowly to his and using the same slowness he gently took her hand and examine the thing.

Beautiful blue light illuminated the crystal glass face and just inside it were.. moving words and incredible is the technology of world of the living.

"How does it work?" Ukitake breath the words out, the boyish spirits within him stirring with 'new toy' excitement. One of his long fingers brushed over the small round glass face. "Were these what aided you against those class tens?"

Ok…now she was getting a little worried.

Her Captain just mentioned promotion by prowess and she had just done what some thought was the impossible last night. This is one of the things that she had been dreaming about every since that day on that hill in front of hers and Renji's friends unmarked graves. To be a proud Shinigami, and seated officer then Lieutenancy or even Captain. So could she actually lie to the kind hearted-father-like figure of a Captain and tell him that she was just high on reiatsu and this watch and the ear pieces were her fix? If it meant that she could be promoted?

- _Do not do such a dishonorable thing, Rukia._ Shirayuki chided her gently _,_

Inwardly she laughed, she couldn't lie even when she wanted to her Captain, her respect for him, regardless of the stakes, was too high.

"Yes, there were." Rukia said after a moment of silence and there went her promotion. The look on his face told her that this was not enough so he began to tell him about Kisuke. Her captain only listened but his cheek bones turned pink at the words Feeling Suppressors and that had her wanting the floor to open up and take her now.

"I really didn't know that they would bring on such a change in me, Captain Ukitake." For some reason she didn't take out the paper in her pocket that held the instructions on how to use the feeling suppressors.

"hmm" Ukitake looked thoughtful. "Able to sense another's reiatsu rhythm, Your zanpakuto speaks directly to you as if they were materialized again? Kisuke Urahara is a missed element in our society." He said almost to himself. "But it matters not."

"What do you mean Captain?" Rukia's eyes lit up hopeful.

"I mean that I have been watching you Rukia and I have already made recommendations to the head captain to promote you as a seated officer for months now."

Rukia couldn't believe what she was hearing. The street rat that everyone doubt would even survive. The one that everyone wanted to fail- a seated officer?!

- _Felicitations Rukia._ Shirayuki chimed. Anything to do with Rukia had everything to do with her as well.

"I've long seen you as my lieutenant in waiting Rukia and I have been watching you closely as you fight battle after battle, watching you grow from strength to strength. This invention," he touched he watch one last time, "has brought out in you what I knew was there along."

Tears filled her eyes, a heavy joy in the chest. Was she really hearing this? This was too good to be true.

- _You know, I've always liked this one but there is something that he is not saying Rukia. Care can be painful sometimes._ Shirayuki sighed disappointed.

Rukia frowned

- _What do mean?_

 _-If he see you as his second in command that much as he says then why hadn't he said something to you before? I can read his spirit, so honest and edger to give encouragement to others, why hadn't he made it known to you before this moment?_

 _-Maybe he didn't think I was ready or I would have gotten a big head if he did? In any event this is excellent news, isn't it? Me!_ _A_ _lieutenant_ _!_ _Can you believe it, Shirayuki!_

 _-Icy_ _crystals_ _and frozen waters Rukia, you don't have to be so loud."_ her zanpakuto scolded but there was not much bite to her tone.

"Thank you sir." Rukia said, grateful didnt even begin to decribe what she was feeling.

Her Captain inclined his head and then looked at the papers in stacks on the floor. He signed.

"Do you want help with these, Captain?" Rukia said trying to tamper down her bubbling feelings. She needed to calm down, impossible as that seems right now.

"I have to admit that I am a bit lost in these since I wasn't there last night and-"

Whatever he was about to say was cut short by the arrival of a hell butterfly.

"This is a summons to Captain Ukitake of Squad thirteen, report with Rukia Kuchiki at once to the Squad One barracks for an emergency meeting." The hell butterfly said with finality.

* * *

"I have a job for you, Ichigo-kun." Kisuke Urahara said slowly as soon as the tall teen with a scowl walked into his shop.

 **A/N**

 **Stay on for the next chapter**


	14. Chapter 14

**_A BIG! BIG! BIG! thanks to my reviewers and followers of this series and everyone who smashed that like button. LOVE, LOVE LOve You guys so much and I am loving the positive feedback. Makes me so happy :) my cheeks hurt from all this smiling._**

 ** _So Chapter fourteen is out_**

 ** _Disclaimer: I am a huge Fan of Bleach and Kubo is the creator of it . I am only the mastermind of this fan fiction, i own nothing else._**

* * *

 _"Do you know the meaning of your name? The name that I found on her blankets marked in chalk coal?"_

 _"No"_ Six year old Rukia squeaked as she craned her neck up to look at the old woman that took her in on that snowy night when her sister abandon her in a basket with only her name and her blankets.

 _"When I heard the knock at my door I knew that I shouldn't have gotten up, my body was stiffen with cold and pain but something, and I dont know what it was, forced me to."_ The old caretaker said, her mouth had little teeth in it so every word sounded like it was being whistled haphazardly through gaps in her gums. _"There was no way for me to hear your cries, the wind was shrieking so loudly, they battered the windows in their relentless pursuit to get in. So when I made it to the door and open it and saw you, in the cold and danger of Hanging Dog, **something** made me pick up and took you in." _ Her one good eye fixed the toddler with a piercing stare and it always stared her because it promised punishment. Rukia's little mind tried to think back what she could have done to deserve whatever it was that was coming, there was never a set kind of punishment for her when she did something that she shouldnt have. But she couldnt think of anything so she tried to quiet the roaring blood in her ear and told herself that it was alright because she had done all her chores and been good.

 _"...I took you in because something made me do it but not anymore."_ Almost to herself the old caretaker said "Flower of Regret; that's the meaning of Rukia." The old woman looked distant as if she wasn't speaking tot he child at all. _"You need to leave now Rukia, leave and take whatever that something is with you."_

 _"I-why?"_ Tears were streaming down her puffy cheeks by then and she didn't understand **leave,** to go where? This place was all that she had ever known ever since she could remember. She was scared and pleading, apologizing for whatever it was that caused this punishment, this banishment upon her when a small bundle was pushed into her smaller hands, soon she was banging on the door of the old shack that she knew was home but this time it wasn't going to open for her.

"Rukia Kuchiki." The ancient booming voice of Head Captain Yamamoto shattered the painful memory from her mind , dragging her back to the present, back to the Squad One barracks and the Captains who were lined up one either side of her as she bowed her head in their presence which is expected.

It was an unwelcome memory, unbidden but still she hid inside of it from the moment it surfaced. Maybe she did that to remain herself not to get too comfortable, that one good fortune or accomplishment is never going to change anything; to steel herself for whatever it was that was coming. The punishment , and it didn't matter how many things she had done right, so she didn't think about them, only the punishment that would come now.

- _You are with me, are you not Shirayuki?_ It was a question that she need to utter, an answer she wanted like air, like strength.

 _-Do you question the existence of the sun? Rukia._ Shirayuki question back in a soft and gracious voice.

Looking up at the squinting old man her reiatsu gauge was on of it own accord and she could sense the immense power coming from him alone, terrifying and awesome in the same breath.

All soul reapers can do this however what Rukia felt were the cords of that power; rich and thick with the fire that from came his Zanpaktou spirit and the connections between them. She knew it like she did her out breaths. This rhythm, old and powerful , was holding back itself. The slow dull 'boom' 'boom', like the beating of drums from far away, the vibration coming off of it with the same slow pulse forcing its way into her body making her heart beat to it's music. As if it was sucking her in.

- _I reject this._ Shirayuki cried out, _-I dont not want to know this demonic beat._

Rukia lowered her head and felt her Zanpaktou calm down a bit. Sweat beaded at her brow and her breath came out in shallow and in a cloud of cold air.

What the hell was that?

"Head Captain." She answered in a pant but respectfully.

This didnt go unnoticed however and her Captain was the first one to speak up on the matter and step to her side

Her body was still stinging with pain so much so that Ukitake had to carry her most of the way to the meeting. He reluctantly put her down at the bridge leading to the gigantic doors that led to the Head Captain's meeting room. She'd objected to being carried of course but her captain wouldn't hear of it because they would have to use the flash step to get to the sudden meeting and he wouldn't allow her to endure any more pain than necessary. It wasn't a surprise that he tried to intervene as soon as they got to Squad One Barracks to explain to them to allow her to stand but the head captain wouldn't hear of that.

"The sick should be in bed resting, Rukia Kuchiki had that opportunity according to Captain Unohana reports but she choose to see about her duties instead. Admirable!" He gave a nod of approval followed by a grunt. "But foolish and she endure the duration of this meeting.

Frustration rolled of her Captain in waves but he said nothing more and just took his normal place in the line up of white cloaks. What _did_ surprise her was the anger she felt coming from...her brother.

Byakuya wasnt one to get anger as far as she knew, which wasnt saying much since she didnt know that much about him. Fifty years and she still didnt know anything.

After his confession to her on the Sokkeyo hill where his battle with Ichigo ensued, she thought that they would be what she always imagine what a brother and sister had as a relationship. She imagine having conversations with him about stuff, the simple kind outside of the obligatory pleasantries of 'hello Lord Byakuya-Nii-Sama, or' good evening Lord Byakuya Nii-Sama.'

But that was all she had, fantasies. She respected Byakuya because it was expected and because of his reputation but they were strangers, living together for the last fifty years brought together because of a promise he made to her sister, his wife. Even when he did things that directly had something to do with her, she didn't know what to make of it.

She just didnt know him.

Now he was anger and she didnt know why or if she was the source of his resentment . She guessed it was the latter.

 _I am the flower of regret, after all_. Rukia thought sadly.

* * *

 _-Calm yourself, Master Byakuya._

Byakuya squeeze his eyes tighter as he tried to control his breathing to center his reiatsu that would cause ground and the walls to tremble, the air to grow laden.

- _Damn him!_ His voice in his mind came out in a loud growl.

He heard Senbonzakura sighed and he tried a little harder to rein in his temper. His zanpaktou shouldn't judge him on temper or impatience but there it was. That old man was causing Rukia more pain, and while he understood his reasons, he didn't agree with them. He was upset with Rukia as well, a little. Why the hell didn't she stay at home where he could protect her, help her get better.

 _Stay by her side, in her presence because I have a reason to._

Ok, so he was also upset because he didn't get what he wanted but didn't he deserve that, at least?

He chanced a look at her from under the cover of his long lashes and hated that he did. Her hand resting on the floor, though it wasn't holding her weight, was barely trembling and in that glance he notice the sweat on her forehead as she address the head captain, the one responsible for her pain right now.

"...You victory last night was more than unexpected of an unseated officer," The head Captain was saying.

"Thank you, Head Captain." Rukia said, her head still bowed.

"I am still in awe and regret about the matter."

 _Did she just flinch?_ Byakuya wondered for a moment then he focus on that last bit. R _egret about what?_

Yamamoto had paused for a moment giving Rukia the opportunity to speak but she said nothing and he couldn't say that he blamed her. All around him faces contorted slightly, brows furrowed in confusion at the Head Captain's remarks. The moment passed and the old man continued.

"Your Captain has always spoken well on your behalf." He paused to look at the Captain of Squad Thirteen who had his eyes close but there was a small smile curling at the corner of his lips and the look of pride on his face. Byakuya would be beaming too if he wasn't worried by what the head Captain could possibly say next.

It didn't escape him that this meeting was unnecessary.

If the Head Captain wanted to congratulate Rukia on her performance in battle he could have just called a private meeting with her and Captain Ukitake, so why were they all here. He feared that this was more than just an unscheduled meeting. Byakuya looked at Rukia again, this time at her contraptions. He was dying to know what exactly they did and he doubted that she would walk out of here without having to explain what they are and why she is wearing them. The Soul Society is a cautious lot and there will be questions and consequences if something is seen as a threat.

Kenpachi was looking at her too like he did last night, then the bastard looked at him and grinned. Byakuya imaged that what a rottweiler would look like learning how to smile.

 _what he hell was he planing?_

During these meeting order was never kept for long. Too many egos taller than the tallest buildings, to contend with. Sooner or later the arguments`` would begin. This time it was sooner.

"It would seem to me that this meeting serves to find out what those things are," This time it was that mad scientist that spoke, "I for one find it hard to believe that an unseated officer was able to defeat one class ten hollow much more six in total." His voice had a certain kind of unpleasant ring to it.

"Rukia-San has been an able fighter before she had these foreign items." Ukitate came to her defense. "For years I have been providing reports to the head Captain about her as mission after mission she has proven her worth as a shinigami."

"No one here can deny her involvement in important battles in the Real world, Hueco Mundo and here in the Soul Society but that still doesn't account for the fact that she did what most of us captains find impossible to fend off. Are these contraptions the reason for your improvement and if so what are they?" Soi Fon cut in.

Before Rukia open her mouth to say something but Kenpachi said:

"It doesn't matter to me what the hell they are, the fact is she is a damn strong fighter, unseated or not I can sense that she is suppressing her full strength even now. Dont hold back on my account, Rukia." He growled.

"Dont speak to her so informally." Byakuya snapped and everyone turn their attention to the two captains, then he realized that this was a mistake and quickly followed up with. "She is of the kuchiki clan and you will show your respect to us."

If he thought that this would shut the hound dog up, Byakuya was greatly mistaken.

A quiet came over the room for the space of a breath, within that time Kenpachi Zaraki took the opportunity to look at Rukia again, the savage grin making it reappearance then he turned back to the Captain of Squad Six.

"Funny that." Kenpachi was still wearing that nasty grin. "I, too, found it amazing that unseated officer was able to take on class tens much more live to tell about it. Normally I dont pay much attention to the frilly ways of you aristocratic assholes but last night this really got me thinking."

Byakuya's fists clench but his face remained impassive. Kenpachi has been provoking him to fight him for years now and it would seem that their little tiff in Hueco Mundo wasnt enough for him to see the different in skill between them.

"So I went a digging through the recommendation files for promotion. " He was still looking at Byakuya, his eyes not wanting to miss one second, anything from the Captain of squad six. "Like Squad two Captain just said "no one can deny her key involvement in all of the major battles so why hasn't she been promoted from lowly unseated to at least third seat with her experience in battle. I even saw that it isn't the first time Captain Ukitake himself has recommended her for his lieutenant. Before the fight with the class tens I couldn't have see it but I can see why now."

"Kenpachi do not speak unnecessary things." Ukitake said strongly but it was too late because the bastard turned to Rukia who's head was now up watching everything.

"Did you know that your brother has been using his power and influence to prevent you from being promoted to any seated position, Rukia, sweetheart?" He put emphasis on the last word just to get under Byakuya's skin and it worked.

The head Captain must have sensed the change in his reiatsu because he bellowed. "Enough!" Yamamoto slam the butt of his staff on the floor. The room came to silence. Byakuya came back to his senses.

 _This was all a set up_.

Not many things could touch him , being that he is the head of the most powerful and influential of the clans in the Soul Society but when possible, there was always an opportunity for humiliation, it was like people stuff it out like sharks stiffed blood in the water.

Byakuya didn't have to look at Rukia to know what he would see there but he couldn't help it, he had to know.

She wasn't looking at him but in another second he felt her anger rising like stones added to a cup of water, with each one added the water level rises until it spilled over. She was still on the floor, her eyes looking at the polish wood for answers but the reiatsu coming off her in waves was dangerous, especially here.

The others were not looking at him either but he didn't care about them, all he wanted was to get Rukia away from these wolves and tell her- _I did it to protect you, not out of spite._

But how can he proclaim himself a protector after what that bastard had just said about him and the worst part about it, he couldnt deny it.

G _oddammit! Can't I Do anything right by you!?_

How long was this fucking meeting anyway?

"Control yourself." Yamamoto said sternly and gravely, the warning clear and for a moment Byakuya thought that he was the one the Head Captain was speaking to. He had closed his eyes before to collect his thoughts, now when he opened them, the Head Captain's eyes were open from their wrinkled shutters but they weren't looking at him.

"Rukia-San" Captain Unohana said gently and Ukitake called out to her as well. Nobody moved, not even Kenpachi who was just smiling at his handy work.

The watch changed color moving from blue to red and vice versa, the walls and floor shook.

As soon as it began, the spike of her reiatsu stopped.

"How interesting that an unseated officer can let out such an impressive display of spiritual pressure, and it was still rising." Mayuri Kurotsuhi said, that mad gleam in his eyes again.

"Silence!" The head Captain barked and once again pin-drop silence flowed through the room.

"What are these contraptions Rukia Kuchiki?" He asked finally.

Silence.

"Are you being defiant?" The head Captain said in a warning tone.

"Head Captain Yamamoto, permission to speak freely." Rukia asked, her tone even.

"Granted."

* * *

- _Rukia do not speak rashly._ Shirayuki said but her tone didn't match her words. The moment Captain Zaraki exploded with that little tidbit about Byakuya keeping her away from her full potential, Sode No Shirayuki lost it. Gone was the elegant poise Soul Spirit and in her place was someone Rukia didn't recognize. Honestly she didn't even knew that her Zanpaktou knew those unrepeatable oaths. If Rukia was in the mind frame, she would have made a mental note of some of them for future use. The reiatsu that rose up was mostly coming from Shirayuki because Rukia was still in shock. Shock turned to frustration as she realized that she wouldn't be able to do jack about what Byakuya had done. She couldn't even lash out at him, at least not here. Never in front of others.

 _Never act below your station. You are a Kuchiki at all times._ She reminder herself for what seem like the hundredth time, even if she wished she wasn't right now.

Calming her reiatsu she avoided looking directly at the head captain this time as she addressed the room , her head rose up from her wooden view then she stood, slowly and ever bit of it hurt. She was looking each of them now from her full height, which wasn't much but it felt good none the less.

"Head Captain,Captains of the Goeti Thirteen, it is understandable that my adornments and my seemingly sudden change in my swordsmanship prowess resulting in my victory over powerful Class Tens can raise suspicions and cause concerns." She paused a brief to let that sink in. " I, for one was also surprised." This admission brought raised eyebrows from most. Byakuya was wearing a usual unreadable expression but she didn't focus on him. She might come out of this calm -level-headed-ness that she rocking and freeze blast the room.

"I purchase these from Kisuke Urahara for personal use not as an advancement in battle or to improvement my prowess-"

"Urahara!" Mayuri exploded. "That-that-!"

"Silence!" Yamamoto thundered, this put an ending to what Rukia thought was no doubt some other unrepeatable colorful adjective for the former Captain. "What did you purchase these things to do?"

"That is my personal information and I would prefer not to disclose that Head Captain as they work just fine in that regard." She said quickly. "My surprise came along with the features of what gave me the advantage in the battle against the class tens."

"What are these features and have you already discussed these with your captain already?" Mayuri hissed furious that he didn't have first dibs on this information.

"She has." Captain Ukitake answered for her.

"And what are they?" Mayuri insisted.

"Now, now." Captain Kyōraku said in his lazy slur. "Rukia-chan didn't get a chance to answer."

Rukia nodded graciously to the Captain wearing pink and then continued. "Before I came in contact with the class tens, I was able to hear them breathing while they were still miles away."

"Hear them breathing!?" Captain Komamura of squad seven exclaimed, his wolf ears twitching. "I am not able to do that."

The other captains in the room except for Captain Ukitake looked astounded.

"When did you manifest the kido spell, during or before the battle?" Byakuya asked.

Rukia had to remind herself that he was a Captain, a superior and not answering him, no matter how much she didn't want to recognize his existence, was a very, very bad idea, especially when he was in the company of other Captains. She looked at him then and answered him without hesitation but it was cold and sterile, like she was reading from a log book. "I cast it after I made my presence known to the class tens."

One raven eyebrow rose, a silent question. then he continued. "When I arrived on the scene, you were moving as if you were able to predict their next movements, you were not just reacting to their attacks."

"I was guided by the voice of Shirayuki during the battle. It was as if she was standing right beside me, but invisible. I was also able to sense the changes in the class tens, I knew when to spike and where to cut them down."

"Soul Reapers should only be able to listen to their Zanpaktou when they are entering into the first stages of bankai." Byakuya said firmly.

How many more question does he have?

She could already feel the pins and needles effect in her left foot from standing too long with these injures.

She was about to suggest disclosing all the details in a report when she heard Captain Unohana said; "Rukia-San, do these contraption help to heal your injures as well?

"No Captain Unohana."

"She hasn't answered my question yet." Mayuri was **_hoping_ ** mad at this point but Captain Unohana pretended like he never uttered a sound as she kindly continued

"Then I will be happy to read more about these extraordinary devices in a report after I have looked at your injures." The woman said with finality, her dark eyes looking around the room until her gaze landed in the head captain. "Would that be agreeable, head Captain?" she smiled and Rukia had seen that smile more than a few times.

The Captain of Squad One was silent for a moment then he grunted his approval of the idea.

 _Thank the Kamis for Captain Unohana._ Rukia thought as the head Captain adjourn the meeting with a slam of his staff.

Mayuri gritted his teeth and Rukia couldnt help wondering if he had something to do with this meeting.

Rukia saw with relieve that her Captain was coming over to rejoined her and if she were to bet on it, escort her to wherever Captain Unohana tell him to take her to get some rest. She doubted that she could after all that just transpired. Byakuya didn't deny that he did that to her and when he didn't she wanted to get as far away from him as possible. She still feels that way. Hurt and betrayal burning her like a bran and only the equally strong teachings of the Kuchiki ways had cause her to hold her tongue and the hopelessness of the situation was a really kicker.

And this is who the Elders of the Council wanted her to marry?

Is diving into boiling oil a second option to that? If so, cannon ball!

 _-_ _How dare him!?_ Rukia steamed and raged to Shirayuki. - _That aristocratic son of a ...ahh!, he make me so mad...Goddamn him for this! I hate him, I hate him, hate..._

This long string of hate and colorful language would have continued if the reason for her anger didn't stop directly in front of both her and Ukitake.

Gray slate eyes narrowed their intense gaze on her, the familiar frown on his lips deepened.

"Come, Rukia." Byakuya commanded in a deadpan and absolute voice.

* * *

 ** _A/N_**

 ** _Enjoy that one did you? I have a great time writing these chapters and I am such that i will have just as much fun with the next ones. The next of chapters coming up soon._**

 ** _I love ByaRuki Fan fics, dont you?_**

 ** _Remember to review and comments, Always love reading what you have to say._**

 _I am still thinking about the Chapter of this one into the next four chapters. Some Spice lemony things to coming up. :)_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 is here.**

 **Chapter 16 is in the making and**

 **Chapter 17 is well... we'll see how that turns out.**

 **I own only nothing but this fan fic.**

* * *

Heat!

Smelting heat as Japan's first month of summer comes to an end and August begins. Ichigo swears that if he stayed out in this heat for much longer, his hair will start to spark and spit flames. On days like these he preferred to not be outside but in his room half naked with the window opened, letting any passing wind kiss the sweat off the skin of his torso, ... in fact he was doing just that until something flew through his window at blinding speeds and crash into back of his door with a 'splat!'.

Ichigo had sat up in that moment, déjà vu pelting his brain and then he exploded.

"What. The. Fuck is wrong with that psycho old man?!" He cursed through very gritted teeth then roared out in frustration at the empty room for a good minute and a half. Thankfully the house was empty because Yuzu and Karin was out with their dad so there was no one here to interrupt his rant and neither did he have to explain what he was so pissed off about.

This might seem like a crazy and interesting sight, and to any unfortunate passerby that happened to look up would think that this was just another teenager having a dramatic fit but Ichigo actually had a good reason to be upset as he was.

The first time something like this happened was when he went to the Soul Society to rescue Rukia and it had taken him a good month and three weeks to get the strains off his wall and at that time the man had sent two blood-like messages hurling into his room. He remembered it like it was yesterday. He had to schedule it into his chores, Goddamn it! Every Saturday and Sunday, scrubbing, washing with every kind of strain removal ad-promising soap that he could procure at his local supermarket. And here he was again. Fantastic!

"What the hell!? Has he never heard of instant messaging!? God!

He was panting by the time he read the message which went like this;

"Greetings Super Teen Soul Reaper with too much time on his hands,

I know what you're thinking and I promise that you wont have such a

difficult time getting this stain off (this time around),

meet me at the shop in an hour, I have job for you.

P.S

This is really good opportunity for you to get some training and I have some soap on sale to get rid of this message this time, ;)."

Lost for words as he was the teen angrily stalked off to the shower then later was stabbing his long legs into jeans and his arms through the sleeves of a cotton shirt. Shoving on comfy slippers because sneakers were a 'hell no' on a day like today.

Kisuke Urahara was a lot of things but he wouldn't just send him a pain in the ass message for no reason.

 _What the hell does he want with me this time?_

If he wasn't so angry he would have just change into his Soul Form and be over Urahara's in no time flying at like a bat out of hell or just cruising at his leisure . By the time this occurred to him it was already too late plus there was way that he could actually leave his body lying around. Kon was an option but there were problems were that was concerned.

As he rounded the corner his mind went back to Rukia, a distraction from the heat, a good one and at the same time he was frustrated. For the past weeks since he came home and she was gone, he couldn't help thinking that he had done something wrong. After they kissed or more actually, he had awkwardly put his lips to hers, she had said nothing and he didn't know if he was supposed to. Damn, he thought that he was doing it right. It looked simply enough from that hedonist movie.

Touch your lips together and rock your head from side to side while closing your eyes.

Ichigo closed his eyes willing the memory to disintegrate mainly because of the embarrassment of the act.

"No wonder she left in a hurry." He said in a daze and he-

"No wonder who left in a hurry?" Said a deep male voice from behind him making him jump and cry out.

Whirling around to find the source, he saw no one. "Who's there?" He called out.

Black and furry with her proud tail up and wagging, Yoruichi Shihoin, in her cat state, dropped down from her perch on a near by fence on to Ichigo's right shoulder.

"Yoruichi!" He exclaimed still a little rattled by the sudden intrusion.

The cat woman jumped down from his shoulder, landing on her legs on the paved ground.

"Girlfriend troubles Ichigo?" Her voice remained even but her face looked like it was smirking at him.

Ichigo blanched.

"Ho oh! Growing up are we?" She teased in that deep masculine voice she takes on whenever she was in cat form.

"Oh. Just shut up. what are you doing here anyway?" Ichigo asked, the blush on his cheeks adding to the already incredible heat around him.

Yoruichi gave him a bored look. "Still innocent I see." She muttered to herself. "I come _here_ often." She said sounding a little irritated and patronizing at the same time.

Looking up he notice that that they were already at Urahara 's shop with the owner out in front with his fan and he was still wearing that cloak in this weather. Ichigo scowl at the man.

"What the hell is this about?" Ichigo barked at him getting straight to the point. He walked directly up to him, fists clenching at his sides in anger.

Fanning himself, Kisuke acted nonchalant as he adjusted his stripe hat then turned and walked into his shop indicating that he should follow him.

"I have a job for you, Ichigo-kun." Kisuke Urahara said slowly as soon as the tall teen with a scowl walked into his shop.

Ichigo waited for him to say something else but he didn't, just continue walking deeper into the shop with Yoruichi bounding right behind them easily. After they passed the shelves of candy and toys, Kisuke slid a door to a medium size room that was mostly bare except for a small round, a few cushions for seats.

Kisuke sit and so this Yoruichi.

Taking a breath to calm himself, the teenager sat down with arms folded. Ururu, the young girl that works at the shop comes in to deliver ice tea to all of them and chill milk for Yoruichi saying as she put down the glasses, "here you go." shyly.

"Thank you." Ichigo said gratefully.

The girl inclined her head and then exited the room just as quickly as she entered.

"I need you to do a delivery for me." Kisuke said as soon as Ururu slid the door closed.

Orange eyebrows lowered into an impossibly deeper scowl. "What sort of delivery?"

"You're the only who can pull off it." Yoruichi said as she licked her ice milky tea, her little pink tongue flicking.

"Tell me what this is about." Ichigo said losing the fragile calm he had dawned earlier. "I didn't need you to stain my door again with that freakish red slim just to get here and hear riddles-"

"If you just listen then you will hear the answer to what I am talking about." Kisuke said, dark eyes gave a piercing glare from under his strip hat stopping the teenager in the middle of his anger rant. "Rukia is in dang-"

"Rukia?!" Ichigo flew from his cushioned seat not caring if they saw the concern on his face or hear the worry in his voice. "What's happened to her? Is she in the real world?"

A quiet fell over the cat and the man in the hat as they both stared at him for a breath.

"Answer me damn it." He demanded.

"She is in the soul society and she needs you." Kisuke answered , his fan over the lower half of his face to cover a knowing smile.

"Then what are you waiting for?" He asked demanded. " give me what I need to get to her and let me go. She needs me right now, right?"

Kisuke and Yoruichi both nodded at the same time.

"Right." Kisuke said. " But you'll have to suit up first you leave in next hour."

* * *

 **Meanwhile in the Soul Society...**

Why the hell isn't she moving?

Ok maybe she was a little upset with him after what Kenpachi said and he can understand that but this was not the time or the place to put up resistance. A full ten seconds had passed since Byakuya had commanded Rukia to follow him but from the set jaw mullish expression she was giving him and the fact that she hadn't moved one inch in that time, he knew that they were going to have some problems. Which was what he was trying to avoid.

All around them eyes like knives were looking at them. Mayuri and Kenpachi, were especially looking at Rukia and he tried to block out the mental image scenarios that could happen if one of them decided to do something rash. Yet the damn girl wouldnt budge.

Byakuya is used to being obeyed before his words left his tongue entirely so it was irritating him to no end that Rukia was being rebellious in this moment in front of everyone.

"Did you not hear me?" He asked in a low, dangerous whisper but everyone could hear him.

Don't put me in this position Rukia. He told her with his eyes which must have said nothing at all because she still didn't move a muscle towards him. Byakuya closed his eyes for second.

Kami knows he doesn't want to do this.

He is the head of the Kuchiki clan and his word is absolute . No matter who it was, he will not allow them to make him look like he was no in control. He was no one's fool! It wouldn't do for him to loose face and what he will have to do...will push them further apart but she had left him with no other choice in the matter.

Byakuya took one step towards her.

"Captain Kuchiki," Unohana glided to stop right in front Rukia effectively blocking her from him. Her voice was causal but there was something there and not many people could pick it up easily. Something dark and sinister of a past long buried. The woman wasn't a Captain for no reason.

"Will believe I have told you my objective with Rukia-san."

She waited for him to answer, which wasn't going to happen.

"I would like to take to her squad four now because as I stated last night, she needs plenty of rest and from the looks of it that is not the case."

Byakuya didn't care what the hell she was saying, he was going to take her back to the manor and they were going to have a long talk about this after she has had some time to regain her strenght.

In that same instant, Mayuri shouted at someone unseen.

"What does that mean?" He screamed at whoever it was, probable at his second in command.

"You idiot!" he exploded.

This was normal for Mayuri but what was strange was what he said next.

"What do you mean you couldn't stop it? What is it?"

This got everyone's attention.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi wanted to know what is 'it" was? That's uncommon.

No sooner than the words "It is coming this way at blazing speeds, Mayuri-sama" left Nemu's mouth did the banging from the guard post started.

"This spiritual pressure." Byakuya and Kenpachi said in unison, one with irritation and the other with delight.

Byakuya eyes looked on to Rukia's but she looked just as surprised.

But before he could do anything or utter a word. A bellow of "Rukia!" came from the sky.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **So that's it?**

 **Nope, there is more and hopefully I can send some more chapter over the weekend.**

 **Love you guys, bye.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Merry Christmas everybody and may your next year be error free and filled with excellent reading material!**

 **This' the season for giving, so I am gifting this chapter to you (and hopefully the next ones) before the year is out.**

 **Enjoy and as always I would be happy to hear what you thought about it in a review (love those) or just likes (these are good too)**

 **Disclaimer: Own only this fanfiction! That Kubo guy had the Bleach idea first.**

 **Love ya...now I am going to zip it.**

* * *

If anyone had asked Rukia what she was feeling right at this moment, she wouldn't have known what to say;

Deja vu perhaps.

Well, it must be, if here they were once again on another bridge and Ichigo was hurtling towards them at the speed of a flying arrow, shouting at the top of his voice.

Her Captain was looking at her with raised brows and her brother questioning gaze fell upon her but she didn't have an answer to their unspoken questions. She didn't know why Ichigo was flying towards them like a bat out of hell.

Where's the fire Soul Reaper...?

Rukia's hands flew to her chest as pain lanced through her, ceasing her body with invisible fingers that seemed to coil around her like a snake tightening it's held on its prey. Rukia gasp, she heard sounds around her, perceived that others were calling out to her but there was nothing more that she could do but slowly losing her balance in the grips of pain that rippled through her like a quake.

-What's happening to me? She asked her soul spirit in panic. -Why am I-? her thoughts were cut short when she another about of pain held her in its grip. This pain didn't just hurt it cut through her like a knife like she was being stabbed a hundred times over and the source wasn't coming from her body. She heard herself cry out but it was like she was far away or under water, the noise sounding as it wasn't coming from her at all but the source of the pain was unmistakable. It was coming from her soul.

-Shirayuki!

She screamed out, her own inner voice was loud and booming in her mind. Rukia is a proud soul reaper and she would never ask for assistance in many things. It was apart of her "try it on your own-do it by yourself" personality make up. Even when she had to fight off pesky molesters in Hanging Dog-sleeping with a knife under her pillow most night(she still kind of did)-she had never relied on others to help her with anything. To rescue her or save her. But when the next bouts of pain came in rapid succession she couldn't even scream out, would have gone to her knees begging for mercy if that would have stopped this.

-help...help me! What is this?

Her fingers were clawing at her own chest as if to rip whatever it was out of her, anything to make it stop.

* * *

"Rukia!"

Everyone's attention had diverted to Rukia in an instant.

At once Byakuya had caught her in his arms. She was cold as ice, but she thrashed against him as if she were on fire.

"No!" she yelled out, pushing against his chest with one hand and digging into hers, her legs kicking air. The watch she wore was blinking colors rapidly, every once in a while, her hands would reach up at her ears. Where they the reasons she was obviously in pain? Was there some sort of problem with the contraptions'

He tried to take them out but couldn't. Byakuya was stronger than Rukia hands down but no matter how much he tried to steady her long enough to take out the wretched things. How can one little person be so strong?

"Rukia," his voice stern trying not to panic, trying to keep his head but the worry was there, in the back, poking it's head out. "Control yourself."

-Control yourself? Really, Master, that's the best you can come up with to soothe her? Senbonzakura tsked in the back mind mirroring his own thoughts. He wasn't good at these things, lulling and relaxing people, it wasn't Byakuya's number one personality trait.

"What is happening to her?" Rukia's Captain asked worriedly marring his face.

"She is going into shock." Captain Unohana hands were already resting on the thrashing Rukia, the kids spell she wove making them glow with soft blue light. When the Captain's brows knitted brows at her diagnoses, Byakuya was in agreement because Soul Reaper never went into shock. That was a human defect.

"How very interesting?" That Mayuri son of a bitch said calmly like Rukia was a specimen in his torture house Laboratory.

Byakuya shot him a venomous look that could cut stone but the Blue Haired Bastard merely pretended that his-I will murder you here and now- look meant nothing to him.

Was all of this because of that boy! this change over her and from what she said in the meeting-...

Byakuya stop thinking when he notices his breaths were fogging...in the middle of summer?

His hands were not just cold now, they were burning as he held on to Rukia. His instincts telling him to let go but how can he?

"What?" Byakuya looked back to Rukia, her Captain now holding her by the shoulders to keep her still but what made his eyes grow wide was the fact that her ice reiatsu was thickening, not from her sword but from her.

It happens with any soul reaper that has command over their spiritual pressure. Byakuya had done this innumerable amounts of time but now as he watched Rukia thrashing and screaming in horror, the bridge started to tremble, the air became not just laden but frost bitingly cold, a contrast to the season the rest of the soul society was experiencing.

There were three crashing booms coming from the direction of the sky and immediately afterward, in a voice that was not hers; Rukia's lips spoke in a soft, sensual voice. "I will make it go away, Rukia."

What in the name of all the Kamis?

Immediately her thrashing stopped and she quieted. The Captains close by sensing that something was off, jumped back right when, in a rush, the entire area of the Squad one barracks bridge, the corridors leading to the meeting assembly room was frozen over. So surprising was this that even the Head Captain open one of his peepers wide enough to witness this sight.

There was a stunned silence until Mayuri uttered "Very interesting" in honest praise and interest.

Byakuya's eyes continued their uncharacteristic widening, nearly popping out of his head. There were not many things that surprised Byakuya. He had lived long enough to not be surprised and on top of that, he had been taught all his life to contain his emotional responses, to mask his reactions. To always be poised and collected but clearly, this was not in the books.

Rukia's entire appearance had changed. Her back was ramrod straight instead of her usual attempts at a straight posture. Her hair was white like snow with a glint of silver when the rays of the sun caught it and her uniform had traded their every strand of clothing from the traditional black for not only the same silvery white like her hair but a flowing gown, so beautiful and so fitting of her form that Byakuya was sure that his jaw slacken and he was almost sure that at the sight of the goddess before him, it became just a little bit more difficult for him to breath.

Stunning, gorgeous, exquisite? None of these words could possibly describe the creature before him. He swallowed over the dryness in his throat.

But then something else happened and he was woken from his stupor with a blast wind so cold, he could have sworn that the blood was about to freeze in his vein. Was that just from the built up energy? Was she going to attack them? Questions, questions but no answers.

Kenpachi started to laugh like a maniac, his grin stretched impossibly wider. "That's some damn fine spiritual pressure!" With Ichigo hurdling down from above and Rukia's spiritual pressure spiking off the charts his head whipped back and forth from the direction of the sky then back again to Rukia like a confused child that had just hit the jackpot by landing in Candy Land.

"Rukia Kuchiki" Came the booming voice of the Head Captain. Her back was turned to most of the soul reapers present. Only Byakuya, Captains Unohana, Ukitake, and Kurotsuchi was close enough to see her expression. The watch contraption had stopped changing color and now had stopped on red.

Did that symbolize something bad, good, none of the above? but when she spoke there was no mistaking the silky menace in the voice that was so unlike Rukia's.

"Rukia is not available at the moment because of all of you." It said.

Realization hit Byakuya like a boulder. Her soul spirit was the one talking. It was a similar situation when he was fighting Ichigo Kurosaki on Sokyoku hill on the day of the execution. He had fought with her once and she was formidable then when she was released from her soul form. Now?

* * *

Ichigo was still reeling from the information Kisuke had revealed to him before he left for the soul society. It made his need to fly straight to her that more insistent within him. If there was anything in his way, he would cut it down. Death would be dealt swiftly to anyone that dared to keep him away from her. He was already in Bankai form before he entered the Senkaimon.

Yoruichi outfitted him with a black cloak with a hood that swallowed for a second until "it" adjusted to him. No time to marvel. Had to get to Rukia. His mind ceased on that one thought. He could kick Kisuke's ass when he got back because although he had not said it out loud, something was telling him that he had something to do with Rukia's current situation.

"This will conceal your spiritual pressure through the Dangai." He was barely listening, worry had him in its grips and all this explanation was hard to digest but he tried anyway.

Kisuke had given him some kind of wand thing and when he went Bankai, he had attached it to the hilt of his sword, the few links of chain wrapped around it to keep it in place.

"And Ichigo," Kisuke called to him before he opens the Senkaimon. "Remember that she might not be as receptive to you as she usually is, so you might have to use force to get close to her."

At a hundred feet in the air and closing, a blast of frost bitting air hit him like a slap in the face; almost robbing him of breath.

"Shit!" He said reactively to the level of spiritual pressure coming from Rukia. He was terrified for her but his determination would drown out that. Ichigo placed his hands at his sides then went into a dive. The cloak billowed in the wind, his spiky hair tickling his forehead under the hood as he increased his speed equaling to Marc three.

Those bastards! he bit out through very gritted teeth when he notices a scuffle unfolding below between Rukia and some of the Captains?! Why the hell were they attacking her? No wonder she had to defend herself. Ichigo saw red.

Ichigo wasn't the sort to introspect. Once his mind got hold of an idea, it ceased on that and ran with it until he hit a brick wall and even then he might just borrow through the damn thing.

Plan of attack?

Attack!

Raising his sword above his head, Ichigo let the power build and push up into his right hand, channeling into the blade. His spiritual pressure sharpened as he got ready to release the overflow.

The energy he had built up ebbed in an instant.

Confuse assailed him. He tried again.

Nothing!

"What the...hell?"

Again he tried to build it up, the same thing happened, then he noticed something. The wand thingy Kisuke gave him was pulsing. Kisuke's words (though he wasn't listening properly before when he was suiting up) came back to his mind in a rush.

"The Beacon Wand will act like a sponge for your spiritual pressure. Along with the cloak, it will help to conceal your colossal reiatsu through the Dangai until you are clear to release it. Use to wand to calm down Rukia long enough to remove the watch and the earbuds from her.'

When he had asked what they were, Kisuke had explained the details and told him "because your powers were awakened from Rukia's, you're the ideal person to neutralize hers that, based on the overwhelming strain and the length of time she had them in for the first time wearing them, they hadn't had time to recharge properly and they could be detrimental to her.

Dread like a huge stone had sunk into his stomach at hearing that.

"Releasing the pent-up spiritual from the wand by pressing the top but don't press it for too long."

Ichigo was sucked in a shocked breath, his chocolate eyes threatening to fall out of his head even as his heart thundered in his chest as fear and fury rage through him, boiling his blood.

He was closer now to the bridge and was able to see the jagged edge Kenpachi's sword positioned to swing at Rukia's neck! With his thumb sinking the top of the wand, his voice boomed in a thunderous roar.

"Getsuga...Tensho!"

It was like a floodgate had opened unleashing a tsunami tide of black and red intense beam heading straight for the unfortunate souls in its wake.

* * *

 **Next Chapters in a few...um...? Well lets just see!**

 **Thanks for reading**

 **:)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Long Awaited...I know. But I had to cool off a little else the story wouldn't have made much sense.**

 **A job as an updater? Qualifications down a bit but here we are.**

 **And Chapter 17 comes with a number of realizations and teasers. So enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer as always: Kubo wrote this bleach series, I am a fan that tried to make good fanfictions for your entertainment.**

* * *

"How did he do it?"

"Your tea, Mayuri Sama," Nemu said as she set the tea down on the small foldable table and dutifully stepped back from her sneering master, who, thankfully was so deep in thought he had not even notice her presence and that was always a good thing in Nemu's life. So to not block his concentration on the war zone happening over at Squad One, she took her familiar spot in the background. They were on the highest and at the moment one of the few remaining towers in the barracks, their spiritual pressure suppressed as per instructed by Mayuri as to not attract the attention of what he now dubbed as Rukia's Spiritual Sensors. The further away from he was, the less she seemed to be able to predict their actions.

Sipping his tea with his left hand was awkward but he had little choice in the matter at the moment; Mayuri continued his conversation with himself.

"The watch and the earbuds is one thing but that Ryoka boy had brought with him something more from that bastard. Something that seems to make his Getsuga more powerful." Mayuri had barely managed to get out of the way in time when Ichigo blasted the Squad One bridge and some parts of the corridor to kingdom come. With the second attack, he wasn't so lucky.

The Captain of Squad Twelve was not having a good day.

First, he couldn't get his hands on those contraptions Rukia Kuchiki wore or the information he needed before the other Captains. The foolish chit had defied _him._ Would have fought him even.

He was hoping for the latter but then her Captain just had to come on the scene.

Then there was that disaster of a meeting that he had pushed. Then his division came up short as that Ryoka blazed through the Precipice World _undetected_.

"Ah but the humiliation continues!" He railed and muttered to himself, every once in a while screaming out something audible.

"Kisuke Urahara might be exiled from the Soul Society yet he still has such powerful influences and pawns able to carry out and affect machinations of the structure of the Seireitei?"

His jaws snapped in time with his rising anger. The right side of his body still burned from Rukia's sneak attack and it would seem that the girl targeted him specifically while he was in the range of her frosty power; so like a woman to do. Cunning devils all of them!

Even with his high spiritual pressure she still managed to give him frost bit in a matter of seconds that blackened and destroyed the upper right side of his modified body. had Him administering emergency serums to heal and heat his cells.

"You bitch!", he had spat at her because she had successfully stopped him from using his sword arm as well as slowed down his heart to a dangerous degree forcing him to make a strategic retreat until he thawed out. That was ten minutes ago and he was still thawing.

Mayuri watched the battle, the scientist in him soaking all the information up and storing it in the back of his head. The strategist in him was grudgingly impressed by how ingenious it was that Rukia's soul-spirit had created an orb that absorbs any attacks thrown at her and propels it back at the sender at twice the focus power.

 _But how long can she keep this up?_

Kido, Hado or any sword releases had zero effect.

He concluded that surely she must have had to study or absorb a great deal of reiatsu to understand the density and molecular structure to know where to break them and send them back. An intriguing theory since she only showed up in the soul society last night with those things. An overdose perhaps?

"Yet she had never manifested any of these techniques before." He should know, he watches everybody in the soul society, every day no matter where they are or what they are doing. "Could it be that the contraptions are the ones responsible?"

This was like the Hogeyoko all over again, there is no telling what these things can do.

 _Until they are properly studied along with their wearer._ He thought with a grunt of greedy pleasure, the sadist part of his personality already building images and sounding the screams of his 'research subject, in his head.'

His calculating gaze fell on the other captains of soul society; their breaths fogging in the cold air, their frustration so palpable he didn't need to feel their reiatsu to know that. Unable to attack and barely able to defend is a bit of a new position to be in for the powerful and shroud minded Captain Shinigamis.

"Hmm." Mayuri mused pausing in his one-man rant for a moment longer, his head tilting to the side as if to see the scene before him a little better even though he could magnify his eyesight up to a thousand times at will to see the tiniest details of any object that struck his fancy. A useful tool for one such as Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

"The Ice Bitch seemed to be avoiding her rumored lover? Interesting. Why is she not allowing him to come closer to her?"

Ichigo had tried to get to Rukia each time Kenpachi Zaraki was pushed back far enough and each time she would send a blast of that same ice that froze Mayuri very bones in his direction. Ichigo was so fast that he left an after-image in his wake and had successfully been able to dodge her attacks and most of the others as well after what happened to him and her brother. And Mayuri got off easier than Byakuya Kuchiki had.

As if he remembered that she was there he called out: "Nemu, you useless tramp," he said without looking at her. "I allowed you to go to those stupid women meetings to gathering data.

If Nemu was surprised about this, her face had remained impassive. This was news to her!

A silence passed then she quickly uttered a "Yes, Mayuri-Sama."

In a contemplative tone, Mayuri asked, "What's the real story between Rukia and Ichigo? Speak up now!" He ordered briskly.

"Well, Kuchiki-San and Kurosaki-Kun," Nemu paused thinking back if during those meeting Rukia had ever mentioned she and Ichigo in one sentence. The thought struck her the same time Mayuri's fist connected hard with her face, sending her sprawling almost to the edge of the roof of the tower.

"I never expected anything from you anyway!"

"My deepest apologies Master Mayuri but-" Nemu wipe the blood away from her mouth with the back of her hand then stood up on unsteady legs, her eyes on her master. Thinking that he might stop her from going to the meetings, her one reprieve from her duties and time away from him. Remembering all the happy times that she had experience with the women of the soul society, the times when she felt the corners of her lips curling into a near smile. And to have him take that away from her?

Mayuri gave her his blank expression, the one that promises that the first hit was nothing in comparison to what will happen next if she didn't have anything of merit to say to warrant his attention.

"I do recall overhearing a conversation between Rukia-san and Madam President."

He gave her a look that made her think that he was either about to strike her again or he was mildly embarrassed for her efforts in bringing up a conversation between Rukia and Yachiru.

"What the hell did they talk about? Sweets and bunny rabbits? "

The conversation had indeed been about sweet and bunnies until Yachiru had brought up Ichigo.

"Is Ichi your boyfriend?" the girl asked in a sudden subject changer as if thoughts jumped up and down without any pattern in her mind.

Nemu watched as Rukia choked on her tea from her place of spying. The meeting had adjourned for sometimes now and Rukia had offered to help with cleaning up.

"Ichigo and I-"

"Ken-chan says that Ichi does yucky things to you while you're in the Real World." The girl said unabashedly.

"Yucky...Things?" Rukia had repeated horridly dumbfounded.

"mm-mm," Yachiru confirmed, her chirpy voice undermining the maturity of the subject.

Rukia spluttered. "I-We, I mean Ichigo and I don't do yucky things together."

Yachiru gave her a disbelieving smirk. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive!" Rukia said in a defensive tone. "We share a lot of things together."

"Including your powers!" The girl said jumping up and down.

"Yes, we share that as well," with a distant look in her eyes, Rukia had said, "That bond will always be there now."

"That's it!" Mayuri exclaimed, "Excellent Nemu."

* * *

Damn it!" Ichigo screamed as he flung another beam to ward off his attacker. "Rukia, you fight her, damn you! "

From the moment he arrived on the scene, Ichigo could tell that something wasn't right. For one thing, Rukia or her soul spirit was attacking him whenever he tried to get closer to her, almost as if she was telling him to stay away. Something that he refuses to do. Could not do because he is key to freeing her from this state.

What started out as a hot day promising to be more hellish was now close to zero degrees.

He was late to stop the possession of her body but if he can just get closer...

A sudden flash of white and bloodlust caught his attention. He parried the strike from Kenpachi's jagged blade just in time.

"Where the hell are you looking, Ichigo?! Did you come all the way here to get distracted by a woman in a fight to the death? You disappoint me!" He monstrous strength pushed back on Zangetsu's blade so hard, Ichigo had to ink out a blast of Spiritual Pressure to prevent him from slicing through it.

"Kenpachi, you son of a bitch. Get the hell out of my way!"

From their place in the sky, metals clang, the sound echoing over the dinge of the chaos below as if they were screaming just as loudly as their owners.

Kenpachi laughed maniacally as he pivots in the air and blocks another one of Ichigo's stricks then counter-attacked like the war beast he is.

Raising the blade above his head, building his energy for the amplified swing, Ichigo took a breath to roar out his release. "Getsu-"

"As if I'd let you do what you want!" Kenpachi roared back as they clash blades again. "Think you're going to end this battle quickly? We're just getting started!" Another round of relentless attacks.

When he arrived on the scene and rained down that terrible power upon them, the Captains of Squad Ten, Thirteen, Eleven and Six had barely canceled it out and yet it destroyed the bridge and most of the massive corridor, cracked and ruptured the high towers and some other building miles out. He wasn't even at full power yet. Kisuke had advised against it and he was trying to hold back.

But damn it if he knew how he was going to get away from this maniac without releasing everything that he's got.

Again Kenpachi moved in on Ichigo, his own immense Spiritual Pressure pressing against the boy's own. Like gigantic waves crashing into one another, the aftershock left the air rippling with power that sparked and spit bursts of electricity.

Was Ichigo current state weakening or was Kenpachi releasing more Spiritual Pressure than usual? With his eye-patch still on?

At one point Kenpachi had completely disappeared out his line of sight then, in the space of a breath, Ichigo was barely blocking, his reflexes his salvation for the umpteenth time as their swords interlocked in a test of strength and reiatsu sharpness. It wasn't that he was weak but seriously where was all this coming from? Was Kenpachi that hard up from not fighting so long?

In a flash, Kenpachi's free hand shot out and grabbed his collar, pulling him in closer. Ichigo tried to resist but it was useless against his fucking strength. Then Kenpachi drew his head back to deliver a brain-bucket cracker of a head buck. When it connected blood sprayed profusely from a vein in his forehead into his right eye.

Ichigo kicked out and connected with Kenpachi's sternum possibly fracturing it but pushing him back long enough for Ichigo to catch his breath and swipe at the blood running into his eye.

"Rukia's powers are quite impressive these days, she'll be my next opponent!" He grinned showing fang-like teeth. "I'll shatter that orb like glass."

Ichigo bellowed in fury. "Stay the fuck away from her!"

The orb is her protection from their immense spiritual pressure; to keep the earbuds from taken in anything more from this reiatsu rich world. He came to realize this because the wand acted as a gauge for his and her powers. There were small two bars on it for each of them with different color levels based on the power there were pushing out. According to his bar, he was still at code yellow on his power but Rukia was almost at red.

 _Too much spiritual pressure into those earbuds too soon and she will-_

He couldn't complete the thought, panic and worry licking at his heels.

Another round of metal scraping against metal, the push and pull of powers then Kenpachi really started to talk;

"Want your girlfriend that badly, huh? Is she that good in the sack?" He drawled mockingly. "Maybe I should try her? Tell Ichigo me, is she tight and wet when you fuck her? What does that street Kuchiki pussy taste like!"

Ichigo face turned red with blushing and he bellowed; "Shut up!"

That Kenpachi would fucking dare disrespect Rukia like that.

"Do something about it then!" The madman goaded as they slash and strike out at each other.

Pissed off and near-mindless rage at his opponent's comments about the woman he loved, Ichigo let his fingers caged over his face.

"You fucking bastard!" He breathed, the gauge pushing up to red on the wand as he collected reiatsu until it hit the buck. "I warned you to shut your mouth," Ichigo tone was calmer, never a good thing. Shouting and even dirty mouth cursing Ichigo was normal. This calmer version of him, however...?

"Don't blame me when you end up dead!" His voice was growling but still quiet.

Kenpachi laughed, delighted with this to the point of elation as if Ichigo just brought him to a climax in the battle.

"Finally!" Kenpachi screamed in a war cry when Ichigo's White and Red hollow mask appeared.

* * *

 **Burns are not nice as Mayuri can attest to. So no flames guys but more chapters in a few. Real world things to do and such will take me away from a bit but I'll come back soon this time, promise.**

 **Stay tuned.**


	18. Chapter 18

**I want to point out that this is a fan fiction that I am winging out based on that K** **udo guy's (love him by the way) Bleach.**

 **Welcome to Chapter 18.**

 **I thank everyone for their words of encouragement in the reviews that have helped to shape the water of this story.**

 **It's greatly appreciated.**

* * *

Inside the Orb...

Byakuya Kuchiki was now apart of some bizarre occurrence created by the circumstances of his own carelessness and Rukia's soul spirit.

He was frozen.

Not completely in the cryogenics of it yet. He was still conscious and willing himself to stay that way but from his feet to his eyelids were frozen. He could barely breathe enough air into his starving lungs.

It wasn't luck that prevented him from being shattered like glass by Shiroyuki's ice but just before the attack hit, he let out a surplus of spiritual pressure that now acted like a thin armor, warming his body and enabling him to talk but that was it. He should've been able to break out of this ice cocoon minutes ago but what he had not anticipated was the level of control Shiroyuki had over him and Rukia is her bargaining chip.

He could see her from where he stood now, in fact, she used the ice to get around and then materialized before him in her true form. Tall, ethereal figure, flowing silver-white hair, white kimono, and glacial blue eyes. She didn't walk, she gracefully glided over the polished ice-blue marble flooring. The Orb was spacious and held ice made pieces of furniture; thick ice crystal columns lined most of the walls and stretched from floor to ceiling while another wall was dictated to a mirror which flickered from his reflection to the events happening outside. A large crystal chandelier hung from the center of the doom, a daiz, and Rukia, whose body was laid out on what looked like a bed-like throne chair- so blue and polished, he could see right through it. Her eyes were closed, her expression serene. So different from her anguished one a few minutes ago.

Sode No Shiroyuki sat on the throne, her fingers gently stroking Rukia's hair; their paleness stark against the midnight strands. The Soul Spirit looked protective, motherly even, in a possessive sort of way.

"Release her." He commanded.

She _ignored_ _him_ and continue stroking.

Her dismissive attitude rankled but he wouldn't focus on that. Not at all!

"You're doing more harm than good, Sode No Shiroyuki, surely you must see this. The both of you cannot exist in the same dimension in your original states without consequences. A soul spirit should know their place in the grant system of things. This is not your world, you do not belong here in this form. By disappearing, Rukia will wake from this stupor since you are acting as a placeholder for her, are you not?"

That illicit a "hmph" and then more stroking.

"What do you want?"

"At the moment," She finally said without looking at him, "I want to turn your blood into an icy river in your veins and slow your heart to its last beat forever, Byakuya."

He would have narrowed his eyes at her if that part if his face wasn't flash frozen. "Why haven't you?" He challenged.

He wasn't accustomed to not getting answers to his questions. It irritated him. And her calling him by his name without the suffix of his title? He has punished men for less yet she seemed to be intentionally going out of her way to get under his skin. "If you care for Rukia at all, you will return to your world, your presence here upsets the balance-"

"Shut. Your. Mouth!" She snapped, glaring at him. "You've made me so crossed this day, I'm deafened by my own anger!"

"How dare you?" Byakuya fumed, his reiatsu rising from the suppressed 20% he's been maintaining, the same level he would use if he were in the World of the Living, to the beginning heaviness that accompanied his Captain's level spiritual pressure.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She said more calmly, the edge of arrogance lingering in her voice caused him to pause. Was he now at a Stalemate? Rukia's writhing answered his question. Her mouth open in a soundless scream and his chest tightened.

He was relieved when she stopped moving.

 _Can't attack, neither can I defend without hurting her more._

"The gall." Shiroyuki was saying. "If I care about Rukia?" She spoke as if that was the most ridiculous thing she has ever heard. Moving from her place on the throne, she glided to stand a foot before him.

Her blue eyes darting calculatingly to the mirror watching as attacks bombarded her protective fortress in rapid succession then the image flickered again to his reflection. The Orb trembled for a few seconds then a moment of silence passed when they didn't penetrate the ice. Then Byakuya heard a chorus of screams and felt the... **_Captains_** panic? What the hell did she just do?

Flickering back to the outside, Byakuya saw Toshiro go Bankai and then him trying to slice the orb with a sharp attack. He could feel the high density of the spiritual pressure he exhibited.

Just before she sent his strike back at him, Byakuya saw Toshiro's eyes went wide when Sode No Shiroyuki spoke directly to him through the mirror. If he could raise an eyebrow, he would be arching them at her words.

"You think to best _me_ with such a flimsy attack- a petulant, ignorant child who isn't even aware of a fraction of own his power?" Her voice was filled with a level of such poisonous mockery it could school a Kuchiki Elder. "I am the Ice Queen and you are barely the Ice Prince."

With a wave of her hand, she sent Toshiro's attack in a backlash wave homing on where it came from. Enunciating each word, she said, "Know your station."

A cacophony of explosions and screams erupted outside the orb when the power hit.

Turning back to him, Sode No Shiroyuki once again dawned an aloof air like he does while he's in the company of others.

"The earpieces are still taking in spiritual pressure but the Orb helps to dull the impact." She explained as if nothing had just happened, "And too much has already placed her in this state, not I." She spat, "If _you_ care at all for Rukia-," She stopped herself, her silver brows furrowing for a moment then as if understanding had dawned on her, said in an indifferent tone, "but what am I saying, you've never cared about her so why would you care if she dies by your own Spiritual Energy? You would consider it an accomplishment, wouldn't you? You've smothered her achievements so much when she has worked for them through hell and high water- has proven it over and over again. Undermined her hard work, blood, sweat, and tears to appease your own selfishness." She paused, letting those soak in before continuing derisively, "And then there was the execution, where you didn't even bat an eye, didn't even left a finger to save her from an unjust punishment. Were you so filled with regret for letting her into your household? "

Bile rose in his throat; every word stung like salt rubbed in fresh wounds.

Her voice was scathing and it was already something that he wished to silence with everything in him. He tried to calm himself as much as possible. He needed his wits about him if he is to rescue Rukia from her clutches.

In a distant tone, she said to herself. "It was a mistake on my part to allow your paths to cross." a look of sadness crossing her face for a moment.

"What does that mean?" Byakuya asked.

"Is she tight and wet when you fuck her, Ichigo? What does that street Kuchiki pussy taste?"

Kenpachi's vulgar goading of Ichigo entered the Orb's camera mirror.

 _-S_ tay focus, keep calm." The voice of Senbonzakura in the back of his head did nothing for him as his outrage at the Captain's audacity threatened to push him into an abyss.

The concentration of reiatsu was necessary to maintain the density of his makeshift spiritual armor and keep Rukia safe.

When the boy didn't deny it, Byakuya's gaze flickered to Rukia and something murderous rose up inside of him so swiftly he barely notice that he had been bitting down on his own teeth until he tasted blood in his mouth.

They're involved. Ichigo confirmed it.

 _Foolish Byakuya! When will you learn to stop wanting what you shouldn't?!_ He chided himself.

Too much happening around him.

 _Stay focus, control your damn anger._ _It is illogical to feel this way about her. Disgraceful. Degrading!_

But funny enough, this didn't seem to help him in the least.

Ichigo's unholy roar followed; a man possessed by rage with the power to direct it at full force to the maniac responsible.

The power coming from the boy was becoming stronger than he'd felt it in memory. Then something happened and inside his ice cocoon suddenly felt a touch warmer than it was a moment before.

It wasn't coming from him.

"Reckless wretch." Sode No Shiroyuki cursed, her porcelain face contorted in concentration and fury. Her proud Patrician nose wrinkled at the bridge with the effort of regulating the energy around her. Rukia groaned, the first sound he's heard from her but the pain was returning to her features. But just as soon as the spike started it ended. The serene look inking back into her features.

His fingers twitched.

The ice freeing up enough for him to make a slow fist at his side.

Was this from Ichigo's power spike?

The soul spirit before him let out a sigh when everything seems to be back to rights, her attention on Rukia before she turned back to him.

"Vulgar accusations from a beast Byakuya, that's what you're worried about?" She closed the distance between to reach out and touch the side his cocooned face. "Does it bring shame to your family's name to have Rukia apart of it. " He felt her power and the beginning burns of frostbite. She was going to kill him now.

That's all you care about." She told him through gritted teeth.

Byakuya's anger made his hand punched through the ice, shooting up to grab hers. A snow based spirit in the Soul Society touched by another aside from Rukia's or even Toshiro's causes scolding burns. That was basic knowledge.

Shiroyuki let out an ear piercing scream of pain, steam rose up from where their skins made contact.

Byakuya sucked in a horrified breath.

Her pain was his; a bridge between them.

"What...is this?" He gasped, unable to get enough air, his popping out of his head. Before he could let go, images flashed before him as if he were looking at them through the eyes of another.

 _Shiroyuki's?_

His spiritual energy had made direct contact with a Zanpakuto spirit body and now he was reliving their host's memories.

 _Rukia's memories?_

Grim images stabbed his mind and their pain; unimaginable pain, pass through him. He wanted to empty the contents of his stomach at some of them. Byakuya is a hardened Captain of the Goeti Thirteen, he has seen many things since becoming a soul reaper that didn't even make him bat an eye but he wasn't prepared to experience these, nothing could have prepared him.

In one, he saw her fighting against grown men whose intention was to rape her. Shiroyuki shrieking at her attackers but that was all she could do. Rukia's clothes torn from their attacks barely held up by threads. He felt how terrified she was. She was only nine. Backed into a corner she produced a handmade knife and strike out; killed one. Angry at the loss of their friend, the men decided to beat her until her face was unrecognizable to him.

"You fucking little whore," They'd spit and pissed on her when Rukia stopped screaming and just laid in the alley bloodied and broken; unable to fight back any more. "Now no one will wanna fuck yah".

Shiroyuki felt as powerless as he did to watch, with only his fury burning fiery hot.

In another, he saw his own face on the day of execution and how Rukia was, of all things, grateful to him for not looking at her. Shiroyuki hated him. He hated him too.

More images but he couldn't continue to process them until he saw Hisana's face. She looked haunted as she walked around the streets of Hanging Dog, looking for her sister. Each time she fell, she painfully got back up, searching, searching for what she left behind so long ago. Not two minutes after a carriage came by to pick her up and take her back to the manor, Rukia and Renji ran by in the same spot.

"Hisana."

He felt Shiroyuki's hatred towards his late wife and he understood why as the next image

A baby Rukia cooed and looked up at her sister from the inside of a basket. There was a snow storm but she was comforted, at home with the pelting snowflakes hitting her pinken cheeks. They had been hungry and without shelter for some time now but Rukia didn't cry out of hunger, she barely ever cried.

He watched as she placed the baby down at an old shack, knocked then ran away without looking to see if there was an answer at the door. Sensing that she was alone, the baby started to wail.

"You despicable coward!" Shiroyuki had cursed after the girl's retreating form but Hisana couldn't hear her; no one could, not even the baby that hosted her soul spirit. She would live on. A soul spirit could just be reborn in another generation if it's host never learned it's named. But a baby left in these conditions will die, if not by the cold, by wild animals, hollows or cruel men.

"Open the door!" She'd scream, trying to bang on the door again and again but just as many times, her hand past through it, her Zanpakuto spirit was still too weak to perform telekinesis in this dimension because of her host's age but she continued until her throat was raw.

"Please!" She sobbed as Rukia's cries got smaller and smaller; the cold was beginning to put her to sleep; one she would never wake from.

Though he knew that she would eventually be saved Byakuya couldn't help the hopeless dread he felt in his own body. Just as the winds picked up around her, a craggy croon opened the door of the old shack, gasped and took the baby in.

The last memory he saw was when she'd led his spirit into the Soul Academy to meet Rukia a year after Hisanna died. He remembered feeling compelled to go to the academy to search even after dispatching informants to Hanging Dog to find the child with no luck. The logical thing was that she was dead or she was still on the streets. He couldn't have understood then but watching now it all made sense.

 _Shiroyuki was leading me to Rukia. But why me?_

"Marry her," Shiroyuki had whispered suggestively to him when his eyes beheld Rukia for the first time. She knew that he couldn't hear her but wished it with all she was that he would feel her resolve even from across her icy plain inside Rukia's soul.

By the time Byakuya came to, Shiroyuki was dematerializing, retreating back to her realm and the Orb was breaking apart.

* * *

 **See you in the next one.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Thanks for waiting for the next chapter. Here it is. You know I don't own anything but this fanfiction.**

 **Enjoy**

 **XO :)**

* * *

Ichigo's Battle Continues...

"Ken-chan is having so much fun with Ichi! Ken-chan! Go! Go!"

"Yachiru," Kenpachi called out to the girl standing a good several yards away on one of the rooftops from his place in the sky. Even from this distance, he could hear her squeaking voice cheering him on, loudly. "You stay back." His vicious grin splitting his face from ear to ear.

 _Yeah, this is fun! So much fun, it's the best._

His eyes leveled with the boy's. White flooded with black, glowing amber marbles like a predator's in the shadows.

If he'd known that a few nasty retorts about that Kuchiki girl would have given him this kind of reaction from Ichigo, he would have been a little bit more imaginative with his comments.

Ichigo stood a hundred yards from him yet he could feel the intense heat of his power.

Scorching. Carnal.

The promise that the battle between these two men was about to begin in earnest.

"Oh, fuck yes! Yes!" He roared over simulated by the ferocious cyclone of spiritual pressure spiraling around them violently. "Come at me with everything you've got, Ichigo!"

The boy had not moved from his place, he just stood there with his mask on with his power ominously building more and more of that devastating spiritual pressure. With each moment that passes the very atmosphere around him ripple like a disturbed pool of water.

Kenpachi ripped off his eyepatch then rolled his head on his shoulders from side to side. Every rotation cause the cricks in his neck popped audibly. Exhaling a long pent-up breath, he let loose his own catastrophic power.

There was some scuffling under them, shouts erupting and screams of alarm but he didn't care; they might as well have been squalling babes. Nothing could pry his sight from his target before him. _Nothing_!

"What the hell are you smiling for?"

"Huh?" Kenpachi drawled, his mind tunnel visioned on the final moments of this battle. God! He was trembling with elation. _Will I die? Would Ichigo die?_

Will anyone within the vicinity even remain unscathed? Fuck! He couldn't wait.

In a flash, he was within an inch of Ichigo face, the jagged edge of his sword crashing down to slice him in head to crotch. The sword whistled as air perceived it's blade. Ichigo's after image fading before his eyes.

 _What the fuck?!_

He didn't even have the balls to counter-attack him.

"Oi, Oi! Ichigo! You bastard, don't spoil this for me." Kenpachi's sadistic grin disappeared, his voice laced with dangerous softness. "Make this boring and I'll show you a side of me that you might not want to see."

That wasn't a threat, it was a promise.

After letting out a surfeit of that impressive spiritual pressure, this is all he had to show for it? A cowardly dodge? Kenpachi Zaraki was getting angrier now. The number of emotions running through him today was more than he usually felt. It had been months since he has had a worthy opponent and now that he had one there was no fucking way he would allow their battle to be anything less than bloody. Honor? Respect for his opponents? Fuck that! At the most, someone was losing a limb today or dying.

Again Kenpachi attacked and again he dodged- no counter-attack.

 _This...this fucker! Playing with me? Getting my hopes up for squat!_

Kenpachi tensed to flash-step in Ichigo's direction, he would put an end to this pissed poor show in an instant. It wasn't lost on him that Ichigo had positioned himself before the Orb and for the first time he really noticed what was going on below him. Slowly, his grin returned when he notice the sorry sight of the Captains. Those who weren't on the ground panting and stumbling were fighting desperately to evade the oncoming onslaughts hurtling back at them like hell's fury. Maybe that bitch will put up more of a fight. "If all you came to do is play?" He shouted infuriated at Ichigo, "Then stay outta my way, Muthafucka!"

A sound of tearing caused him to pause. Like cloth being ripped by clutching fingers.

Drip. Drip. **_Drip_**.

Something was definitely wrong here as an unmistakable metallic smell hit his nose.

"Blood?"

He hadn't landed a blow on Ichigo just yet so where...

Kenpachi looked down the length of his body and notice a deep long slash stretching diagonally from his lower stomach all the way across his thorax. Parts of the cut was still white, blood had not yet pooled in those areas as if his body had not fully registered that his skin had been broken. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of black and orange and his hand reflectively shot up. Battle after innumerable battles had sharpened his instincts- luckily too- because one second Ichigo was a couple of yards before him, the next his black blade was centimeters away from Kenpachi's left cheek only kept at bay by the teeth of his sword.

Amber eyes narrowing; crushing spiritual pressure . Kenpachi grin was savage when he asked. "When did you slash my chest, huh?" He laughed coldly when there was no response just a look of utter rage bordering on madness. "So fast, my nerves didn't even register it immediately." Even now the pain was just beginning to sting.

"I take it back," He said, their swords chattering from the strain in their arms. "You're the best, Ichigo! Now, keep that spiritual pressure nice and sharp or I'll be paying Rukia a little visit."

With a roar, Ichigo pushed back from him only to strike out with a viciousness he has only seen in very few opponents.

Wait, did he just get faster?

Calculating his next move, Kenpachi spun around just in time to parry a lightning fast swing. Sparks flew at the contact. The deafening clangs rent the air for long moments as the fierce battle continued. Ichigo attacks were feral but experienced and instead of making him mindless, his rage only made each swing stronger, leaving no openings, much to Kenpachi's delight, and indeed he had been enjoying the fight; roaring and launching counter-attacks one after the other with cheery violence until he sensed something was off.

Coming from below them? No, the source of the disturbance was not just one direction it was coming from multiple factions.

 _Who would dare interrupt my fight?_

The question made him pause for a second to determine the soon to be dead-rat. Although he really had a bad sense of direction when it came on to finding anything, Kenpachi, if he concentrated hard enough could use spiritual pressure to seek out his enemies. At any other time, this was have been great, with Kenpachi the more the merrier for a good fight. But unfortunately, this gave Ichigo enough time to come at him with a double spin flash cut lunge- spinning like a demonic gig aiming for his heart. Kenpachi deflected the blow sending the boy back several feet away only to give himself some time to recover. The result had given Ichigo enough room to raise his sword above his head.

"Fuck me," Kenpachi groaned realizing his mistake too late, he had been trying to avoid this, trying to draw out the fight by attacking the boy relentlessly until he seemed to have all but forgotten about that Shikai, fighting him in the way real men did.

But before Ichigo could speak the name of his release, a cylinder of ice engulfed him.

* * *

Mayuri's footsteps made a 'woom-woom' sound as he stepped onto the sky battlefield, his beady eyes on the now encased Ichigo Kurosaki. He's had enough time to think and evidence concluded that he would need to kill the brat since he was the only thing standing his way.

A simple yet elegant plot. Kill Boy: Get to Contraptions.

If the girl died?

 _All the better._

In his line of work, all deadmen told tales more readily than if they were among the living.

Kenpachi head swiveled round in his direction, growling at him. Truly, the man is an animal.

Mayuri sighed, if only it was legal to experiment on soul reapers he would have been able to get much intel on the inter-workings of Captain Zaraki.

"Oi, Fuck-Wit!" The animal called out still growling, "What the hell do you think you're doing, huh?"

Mayuri ignored him like he would a yapping dog but kept him in sight at all times. Meanwhile, black and red spiritual energy was leaking through the cylinder of ice, some parts already cracking unable to contain the overflow.

"I must move quickly."

In a flash, Kenpachi was in front of him, his long blade bearing down on his head; judgment at the ready.

At the same time, a flurry of spiritual pressure rared it's head from Mayuri as he commanded;

"Bankai," a red reiatsu encircled the area he stood; static rain fell all around them for the space of a breath as his Captain level spiritual pressure permeated the air and shook the sky. "Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō!"

As his monstrous creation materialized into form, it threw back it's ridiculously large head and screamed; a blood-curdling scream signaling "Death" and "Everything awful." The poisonous purple smoke billowing up from its mere presence fanned out in the surrounding area, tainted the air.

Kenpachi gave a hard shake of his head as if to clear it.

Mayuri noticed that he'd jumped back, his left-hand flexing; a purple mark on the back of it spreading as the beginning numbness of his Bankai's poisoning started to take hold on the Captain. In an off-thought, Mayuri commended Kenpachi for remaining standing and able to regulate stable reiatsu under his feet to stay afloat in the air. Anyone that didn't have his blood, who heard Ashisogi's scream is paralyzed in four seconds. Which meant the only ones able move right now, were him and Nemu and-.

Right on cue, Kenpachi fell to one knee. The poison running it's course through his body; more so because of the animated fight he was engaged in just seconds before.

"What the fuck did you do to me, asshole?" He spat.

Mayuri rolled his eyes. He will want to kill him for interrupting his death match with Ichigo but he wouldn't be able to. For as much as Kenpachi was a war-beast, he wasn't above the law of the Soul Society.

"Explaining something so simple to a beast like you," Mayuri said in a bored tone, "would be waste of my valuable time."

Yellow teeth grinned a horrible smile when the sound of cracking came from beneath them, the Orb housing Rukia was breaking apart allowing him access to her.

The ice around Ichigo burst opened from the magnitude of his spiritual pressure.

 _Ah, Nemu should be finished planning the-_

Three explosions went off in rapid successions.

"Bombs!" Mayuri said like one would say "Eureka!"

Twirling his long fingernail in the air, the mono-dialogue began again.

"These will not be enough to kill the boy when his spiritual pressure is surrounding him like that but it will confuse him long before he notices the poisonous air unleashed from the bomb blasts and the paralyzing effects in his limbs."

Coughing sounds coming from the Ryoka's direction confirmed that his theory. It was difficult to tell what his actual spiritual pressure level was when he was wearing that cloak from Kisuke that concealed it so well.

 _When I get my hands on him-._ He swore to himself.

"DON'T INTERRUPT KENNY'S FIGHT!"

Came a shriek from Yachuri, still on the roof a good distance away yet Mayuri's hands moved to his ears in defense. A large pink skull made up a reiatsu appeared like a phantom masking her from behind.

Yachiru angry was just as rare as Byakuya smiling.

Mayuri's reactions to all of this?

"Fascinating!" He beamed, meticulously making mental notes of this new data.

"Yachiru, you say back!" Kenpachi barked but the girl continued to shriek.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mayuri could see the towering man gripping his sword hilt with both hands as he tried to stand on wobbly legs. Sweat washed him from head to torso. His Captain's Haori was red with blood from the wounds Ichigo inflected. Mayuri's keen eyesight told him that he wouldn't be able to maintain that stance for long, much more take a normal step. Mayuri turned his back to him to face a more immediate threat. Black smoke was still obscuring his vision but he could faintly see the outline of Ichigo's form some distance away. Pointing at the Ryoka, Mayuri instructed his Bankai;

"Tear him _**apart** ,_ Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō. _"_

With a cry, the thing raced towards its target too happy to obey it's master's commands.

Mayuri continued to peer at the boy's outline. When a breeze blow by the smoke thinned somewhat and he could see the boy a little better now. Mayuri's eyes grew to the size of saucers as a monster walked from behind the wall of smoke and stared directly at him.

"Damn him!" He cursed acerbated. Stripe white horns, ghost skin with a hole in his chest. The baneful spiritual pressure emitted from him was so high and had such a density that if he were a lesser man, Mayuri would be trembling. Red energy began swirling around him, gathering between his horns in a growing ball.

"A Cero!" Mayuri bit out, watching in fascinated horror, knowing what was about to come but unable to look away or even run. But then again, where could he go? He's read the reports. Watched the feed of Ichigo's battle with Ulquiorra Cifer at the top of Las Noches, and knew how just one of those things was enough to cause such widespread destruction, one would have to see to believe.

They were doomed.

Yet in the middle of all this Mayuri was thinking; _The bombs must have been a catharsis to trigger his full hollowfication state. A form of protection, perhaps._

Ichigo leveled his horn then fired on everything.

* * *

After carefully aiming at his target some hundred yards away, a deep voice whispered the name of his weapon like a prayer.

"Seele Schneider."

* * *

 **See you in the next one and oh, if you liked this story or any story I write, please to follow me or review. Totally appreciate it. Comments are always welcomed.**


	20. Chapter 20

When the three explosions went off simultaneously injuring his left side, Ichigo mentally chanted to himself;

 _Stay sane. Stay sane!_ Even as his own power threatened to render his consciousness to nothing. He was bleeding and burnt, pieces of scrap metal flew from one or all of the bombs into his body. As the smoke filled his lungs and he coughed, it became apparent that one of them might have found itself under his rib cage. His body was weakening too quickly.

 _You can't stop this._ His inner Hollow laughed maniacally, the palpable need to shed blood and spread destruction was overbearing. "It's been too long. Get out of the way ' _king_ ' and set me free."

Did he just say that out loud?

"Shut up!" Ichigo squeezed his eyes tightly, his grasp on reality slipping, his body felt like it weighed a hundred pounds more as if a heavy load just dropped on his shoulders, bending him to its will.

 _The power coming from me, the wand...it's pushing out too much all once. Can't get control of my emotions...fast enough!_ His thought sounded stained in his head.

When the ice enveloped his body he's instinctively felt the beginning changes of his hollowfication come to life, so different from when he brought out his mask a few minutes ago. Some parts of his body were already flour white slowly creeping, consuming him inch by inch, the pulsations coming from the transformation process were so strong it felt as if each percussion sucked in almost all of his essence only to spit it back out violently. He'd thought he could control the monster lurking within himself; clawing at whatever wall that separated them to get out. He'd thought he could wound his opponent enough to incapacitate him so that he could make it to Rukia and did what he came here to do. To rescue her.

How wrong was he? To the point where it's too late?

 _Can barely sense any spiritual pressure any longer._ Everything felt askew, mucky and unrecognizable. "Stay...sane!" He commanded himself through gritted teeth,

"It's useless." His inner hollow mocked, his lips moving of their own accord without his permission, half of his body was already taken over.

"No! Get away from me!"

He's only ever fully hollowfied twice and within those times, he felt like he was watching a version of himself eradicate everything in sight mindlessly. It horrified him to know that he was capable of such destruction. Control? He had none. Friend or foe was one in the same and there was nothing that could stop him. He used to fear this side of himself, feared that one day _**It** _ will be him and **_He_** will no longer exist.

 _Have to fight him...won't stop fighting him._

Looking down to assess the damage done to him, he saw black spots before him, his vision growing blurry. Was this blood lost causing him to lose consciousness? Or was he closer to his transformation that he realized? Then the black spots started to get bigger...on _him._ Ichigo blinked rapidly as the full weight of the situation came into play. Not black, purple. His legs felt like jello and he wobbled a little.

 _Poison?!_

Horns bulged up and out from his forehead, stretching the skin there taut, protruding before him. He felt his strength fading, his limbs growing numb, and the accompanying pain as the monster broke through the wall and the hole opens up in his chest; coming to destroy them all! He felt the moment his sword slip from his paralyzed fingers, heard it whistling through the air as it plummets to the ground, the wand still wrapped up in its chain links. As Ichigo's consciousness faded into the background, the last thing he thought was;

 _Rukia, I'm sorry._

 _"_ Step aside, foolish king." Said his inner hollow.

* * *

Where am I?"

Wherever Rukia is, was freezing cold and so dark she couldn't see her hands when she placed them in front of her face.

At first, she suspected that she was inside her inner soul world, in Shiroyuki's dimension, but that couldn't be right. Where were the Ice Gardens and frozen lakes, and the white crystalline forests? No towering ice castle in the distance neither was there any dull light filtered by a gigantic blue ice diamond hanging from the center of the sky.

In actuality, there was no direction neither did time exist here.

"Am I finally dead?" She asked the darkness because of the 'at peace' feeling she's been having ever since she opened her eyes in this black space. It wasn't the first time she's felt this way. In fact, there had been several different occasions in which this feeling had entered into her being as if to give her reassurance to take the unknown path ahead of her.

Only silence and the cold answered her; just like all those years ago.

Walking in the darkness she had no fear. No destination and it felt...right. As if she was at home. The pain she felt before entering this place was a distant memory now and she found that it was easy to forget about it. Maybe in time, she'll forget everything that made her Rukia Kuchiki and right now she was okay with that.

The sound of snow crunching underfoot entered into the nothingness of the space.

 _Soothing._

"Rukia," Said an echoing voice in the distance, from behind her? In front of her? She couldn't tell and she honestly didn't want to know. All she cared about right now was walking towards nothing, that was until her head smacked into something hard before her.

"Ow!" Rukia said rubbing her forehead.

A large black mirror stood before her, a mirror that didn't show her reflection. But that was because of the darkness around her, right? There was no light to enter into it.

 _Then how can I tell it's mirror?_ She wondered, feeling caution creeping back into her veins. No, not caution. The feeling coming over her was too ominous and foreboding to just be a sense of caution. The thing blocking her path put a temporary stop to her pilgrimage to nowhere.

 _Creepy, coming out of nowhere like that._

First darkness and snow, now a mirror that didn't show her reflexion.

"What now?" She said

"Ru-kia"

There was that voice again only it was much louder, stronger but at the same time injured. Weak.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Rukia demanded, peering into the dark mirror, like an inky pool, it reveals nothing for long moments then just as she started to look away something white flashed in it, breaking up the inky blackness for a second. It wasn't a light. When the voice came from the white thing, recognition dawned on Rukia even as horror seized her.

Some parts of her Kimono were still white but her entire right side was charred. Only half was her beautiful face was recognizable and she was laying on the ground, in a fetal position facing her.

"Shiro-" the name got stuck in her throat. Rukia lungs felt they were constricted into a tight knot. She pushed against the glass of the mirror hoping against hope that it would allow her access, to get to her soul spirit.

"Shiroyuki!" She finally cried, banging on the glass. "Just hold on, I'm coming to you, I swear, I'll make it over there!"

"Ru...kia." Shiroyuki barely managed to say, "I... I...will be alright."

"You're lying." Rukia sobbed, tears streaming, the bottom of her fists stinging from her useless banging on the mirror wall. "I can feel how weak you are, you feel...like you're leaving me." She cried. "I'm sorry I didn't come to you sooner, Shiroyuki, Oh Kami, I need to get to her." She whispered to herself.

Her soul spirit smiled weakly but only the left side of her mouth curved. "Never leave you...my lady. Always...pro-tect you. Just need to rest for a while...no more... pain..will come to you..now." She said so softly Rukia could barely heard her.

Burning with frustration, Rukia demanded, "Who did this to you? Tell me!" She _needed_ an outlet for this and she would be damned if she allowed anyone to hurt her soul spirit to get away with it.

Just before she closed her eyes, Shiroyuki asked in a weak whisper, "Must you always ask questions you know the answers to?" Ghostly she said, "I-am-you." Then she disappeared leaving Rukia and the mirror. She felt useless and helpless. A perfect reflection of what she was right now and Rukia hated herself for being like this. How many times was she to be like this?

"Pathetic!" Screaming bitterly over and over again, hitting the glass hard until they were wet with her blood, the skin of her palms and knuckles abraided from splinters the mirror gave up against her relentless attacks. There was nothing else to attack and her anger demanded retribution.

Rukia continued to cry as she fell to her knees feeling a heavy depression settling inside her very being; weighing her down. She stayed that way for an untold amount of time, feeling as broken as the shattered mirror before her but slowly, a feeling weightlessness like she was floating on water, started to build inside of her body. It started in her arms cross to her neck and shoulders then downwards until all of her felt as light as air. It felt like she was no longer embodied, ghosted out. "I'm being pulled back to reality. Back to the Soul Society."

What would greet her when she surfaced?


	21. Chapter 21

**Hi everyone, thanks for sticking with me and for anyone who has read the first few chapters and saw the terrible grammar errors, I'm really sorry about that and hope to make some changes soon. Thanks for your support as always and drop a like or review when you have the time.**

 **Enough from me, here's the next chapter.**

 **XoX. Own this fan fic**

* * *

"Uryū lets go!" Yoruichi ordered as they flew through the Dangai.

"Right." The glass-wearing-teen replied as they race the Cleaner coming up like a speeding train on their backs.

 _This is getting ridiculous._ Uryū thought

How many times was he to do the same thing over and over again? Ichigo messed up, he came in on the cleanup team to mop up.

As they exited the Precipice World in a rush of wind and light, the two separated as planned. Yoruichi, in her cat form, went to the upper-class villa estates and Uryū followed the colossal churning of reiatsu over at the Squad One Barracks.

"Seriously, what did Ichigo come to do? Start a war?"

Because that's exactly what it felt like. War, with no survivors.

Was this even a rescue?

He sighed in resignation. The things Ichigo Kurosake did left him baffled to no end sometimes. When the momentum from the Dangai died down he performed his hirenkyaku, gathering reishi under his feet quickly, then riding the surf to his destination. With his white cloak snapping like a whip in the wind around him, Uryū materialized his bow as he drew closer to the site, then he skidded to a stop in mid-air, his bow limp at his side. Upon seeing what he could only describe as _the_ _most_ belligerent display of dissonance he has ever witness, he couldn't help the genuinely confused expression on his face!

He anticipated something insane but this...!

"What the-?" And here he thought nothing could surprise him anymore. Wrong! Words failed him as he stared at the battlefields both below and just before him.

Recovering somewhat, Uryū pinned his glasses with his index finger to the bridge of his nose growing more irritated, his puzzlement getting erased by the anger rising within him...

"And **just** _what_ part of a rescue is this suppose to be?"

.

.

Just a few hours ago, Uryū was in the middle of his summer job, his business his own. His father demanded that he worked at the hospital for the summer so naturally, he decided to get a different job entirely-two in fact. One at a fast food restaurant during the day and the other, at a fabrics store at night.

He was just finishing up with the last order of the day at the restaurant when Yoruichi showed up flash-stepping through his workplace. One second he was standing at his station about to deliver a customer's food order, the next, there was only the station, no food, and one flabbergasted customer.

Uryū looked down as the city passing under him in the blur.

"I hope you don't mind me eating on the run but I'm absolutely starving," Yoruichi said with one side of her mouth stuffed with the hamburger sandwich, a bulged cheek working on grinding food into swallowable pieces. One hand dragging him by his collar, the other holding a...take-out bag? with his customer's fries. The drink was nowhere in sight.

 _When did she grab a take-out... bag?_ His off-thought broke when he saw that she was completely nude!

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He yelled, his face looking down, red as a tomato with blushing.

 _First, it was as the talking cat thing, now she pulled something like this? No wonder Ichigo is afraid of her._

With the food devoured, she grinned evened white teeth down at him. He struggled against her grip, wriggling, and thrashing about for some time without any success. Despite his struggling, he was yet to hear a thread pop from his suspended weight. The fabric of his uniform must be an over-achiever.

Kidnapped by super-strong-naked-flying-soul-reaper? You just don't prepare for that in the design scenarios.

"Need you for something real quick." The Goddess of Flash said when they landed in the front yard of Urahara's shop. Uryū closed his eyes tightly, "Fine!" He bit out. "But could you please put some clothes on first."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said in the male's voice of her cat form. "follow me and I'll explain," the cat urged, her proud tail wagging as she ran towards the shop entrance.

"As if **that** **form** makes me un-see all of _that_ from a moment ago," Uryu said stomping after her.

.

.

Now, after changing into his Quincy cloak, he was about to engage in a fight he was forced into. Although, he couldn't deny the surge of excitement thrumming through him, awakening him in ways only the thrill of an impending battle can do. It's been a while.

He released a breath.

Before him, two monsters faced off. Mayuri's Bankai with its myriad of razor sharp blades sticking out of its neck, gigantic blind baby head ringed with a metallic halo and its caterpillar-like body headed at full speed at a completely hollowified Ichigo who readied his horns to fire. Of the two, Ichigo was the one that gave him chills. Uryū can still recall all the details of that horrible night at the top of Las Noches Castle, the devastation it brought to the land and him. But the worst part, was when Ichigo could no longer hear his voice. Could no longer tell friend from foe.

It didn't escape him that no one except Mayuri, Ichigo and Nemu was able to move meaning everybody else was paralyzed.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath for more reasons than one.

Uryū quickly summed up the situation and judging from the malicious reiatsu building in the air, his proximity and the force and direction of the wind, he came to the conclusion that he only had three seconds and one _, just one,_ shot at this.

If he missed, then they were all dead. _Then by my pride as a Quincy, I will not!_

On the count of three.

 _1..._

Uryū repositioned himself to take the shot, knocking his bow with an arrow effortlessly.

As if the rapid decay of time had decided to take a vacation, in _that_ moment, everything slowed. The sounds around him dulling to a low hum, the scattered activities stilled leaving only the vibrations of his weapon as it gathered Reishi.

In a reverent voice, he breathed, "Seele Schneider: **Anhäufer** "

 _2_...

With a deep exhalation through his mouth, Uryū drew back the thin blue string to it's fullest extent, taking his measure on his target- his arm tensioned just right. The spiral red ball of power building up between those horns was pushing out enough dark power to make any grown man tremble like a leaf in a high wind yet the hands holding the arrow taut and aimed were as steady as a surgeon's.

 _3!_...

Uryū released Seele Schneider with a loud 'twang' sending it flying at Ichigo, at his horns and all hell broke loose.

Ichigo let out a shriek, the sound heralding the destructive power that had pooled in between his white horns now burst in a rush of crimson and for what seemed like the longest of moments, the golden light of the sun seeded control of the sky to the red rage blast from the creature.

Whoever said that a lot can happen in a day, needed to _really, really_ upgrade that to seconds.

Just as he perceived his arrow making contact with Ichigo's power, a heartbeat before it hit Ashisogi Jizo, Uryū's blue eyes blinked in disbelief because directly behind the beasts from Hell's Pit and in the line of fire, stood Nemu!

"What in the living hells?!"

With her arms clasp before her, face impassive as if there was no incinerating Cero heading her way like a comet on one of those 'destroy-everything-in-its-path' missions. She looked like she was planted there, immovable like perfect marble but from hundreds of yards away from where he hovered, even with everything that was happening around him, he could sense her panic above all else.

"That bastard." Uryū cursed again, kicking hirenkyaku into overdrive. He was fast but could he get to her in time?

Pushing the doubt in his mind away he focused all that he had into gathering Reishi under his feet, riding the glittering wave. Nanoseconds ticked on, hundreds of yards covered in a fraction of a heartbeat, racing against the very power he had unleashed into the fray.

The scene beside him unfolded as he crossed it in a blur of white, going faster than he ever had before, his new target a hair's breadth away. In a fantastic moment, both he and Mayuri caught sight of one another. With his big eyes barely turning, the Captain grinned at him like he had just won some secret victory over Uryu. He didn't have time to think what that meant. He had to get to her.

 _I have to get to her._

His fingertips brushed the alabaster skin of Nemu's hand just as his arrow hit it's intended target. The contact between the powers created a tremendous sound of air being sucked in as if the entire Seireitei took in a breath only to roar out with a deafening explosion.

The airburst sent Uryu flying in one direction and Nemu in the other. For a while, all he could do was try to right himself against the ravaging winds unsuccessfully. He went spinning and twisting in the air so much so that parts of his cloak and both sleeves were ripped clean off by the sheer force of the gust alone. Screams all around him, people panicking as the shockwave upheaved some of the buildings from their very foundations, grand fissures fanned out as cracks made their appearance on the surface. When his back met something solid, the force from the impact almost made him retch. The air in his lungs deserted him in a rush, his consciousness quickly following. As he closed his eyes, his glasses lost in the chaos, the last thing he remembered just as he completely blacked out was something flashing before him and strong hands around his waist.


End file.
